


Anthology of a Writing Challenge

by Jules1980



Category: Cagney and Lacey, Cobra Kai (Web Series), Grimm (TV), Karate Kid, Night Court (TV), The Tenth Kingdom
Genre: A/U, F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-21
Updated: 2019-02-21
Packaged: 2019-10-30 21:08:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 28
Words: 28,590
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17836241
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jules1980/pseuds/Jules1980
Summary: A 30 Day writing challenge in my favorite fandoms!No Day 16 or 17 as they were lists and not fics.  No Day 14 because my numbering got messed up.





	1. The Thin Gold Line: Just Friends

**Author's Note:**

> Many Fandoms and Crossovers  
> I own nothing.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 1 of writing challenge  
> Victor Isbecki meets the new dispatcher!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cagney and Lacey Fandom  
> I own nothing.

Victor Isbecki never gave much thought to the dispatchers at the fourteenth precinct. As long as they answered when he called, he was good. Besides, a mousier looking group of ladies he’d never seen.

That was until he saw ‘old’ Thomas leading a new one through the precinct. She was no Christine Cagney, but she was cute enough with her red hair and green eyes.

“Jolene, this is two of our detectives, Paul La Guardia, and Victor Isbecki,” Tom said, stopping at their desks. “Gentlemen, this is Jolene Baker.” She’s going to be taking over for Sandra as one of our nighttime dispatchers.

“Your name is really Jolene?” Victor smirked.

“Yeah,” she blushed. “I know, I know.  The song. I’ve had green eyes and red hair and the name Jolene since 1960. Dolly didn’t start singing about it until 1975 and if I could take a man from Dolly Parton, I definitely wouldn’t be working nighttime dispatch in a police department.”

Victor laughed.

“Now, Miss Baker, that is the most charming accent,” La Guardia said, taking her hand in both of his. “Where are you from?”

“Oh,” she covered her mouth and her cheeks turned even redder. “Louisiana.”

“I thought I detected a southern drawl,“ La Guardia smiled.

“Yes, sir. Don’t worry, I’ll do my best to keep it under control when I’m on the radio. I’ll try to remember that you all don’t add three extra syllables to every word.”

"Where in Louisiana?” Victor asked. “I’ve been to New Orleans a few times.” Bon-Bon loved the French Quarter.

“Natchitoches. Nowhere near New Orleans, I’m afraid,” she smiled. “It’s in western Louisiana, far enough south that I can cook beignets, but far enough north that I’d probably just bake biscuits instead.”

LaGuardia smiled, thoroughly charmed. He looked over her shoulder and motioned to the two ladies who had just walked into the office.  "Christine, Marybeth, come meet our new recruit for dispatch.“

"Nice to meet you,” Mary Beth said after they were introduced. “Did you move here with your husband?”

“Oh, no ma'am,” she laughed. “I’m not married. My friend moved here after college and she recently lost her husband. She asked me to move up here with her while she gets back on her feet. Help her with her kids and all.”

“That’s so nice of you,” Lacey smiled.

“Have you ever done this kind of work before?” Christine asked kindly but sizing the young woman up critically. She didn’t look strong enough to handle the stress of police work, even dispatch.

“Yes, ma'am,” Jolene answered. "My Dad is the sheriff where I’m from.  We lost my mother when I was a baby. I grew up in the office. The man who runs my dad’s radio room brags that he taught me the ten codes before I knew my alphabet,” she smiled.

“Another cop’s daughter, nice.” Cagney nodded her approval.

“Well, it was nice to meet you all, "Jolene said as Tom ushered her out.

* * *

"Did you meet the new dispatcher?” Isbecki asked Petrie later that afternoon.

“Yeah,“ Petrie nodded. "Seems nice.”

“She’s cute, right?”

"I don’t care if she’s cute, Victor,” Petrie said. “I care if she can do her job.”

’‘Come on,” Isbecki chided. “She’s cute, isn’t she?”

"Yeah, she’s cute.” Petrie finally caved. “But that’s all I’m going to say about that.”

“I’m going to ask her out,” Victor said.

“She’s not going to accept,” he warned.

“And why is that?”

"Because when she gets to work tonight, every woman in dispatch is going to tell her to stay away from Victor Isbecki and being the smart girl that she is, she’ll listen,” Petrie replied.

“Yeah, yeah,” he sighed.

“What about Bon-Bon?”

Oh that,“ he said, dismissively. "she took her act to Las Vegas for three months.” He was silent for a few minutes. ’'I like the way she talks, you know?”

Petrie laughed. “You are so gone, Isbecki.”

* * *

“Hey. Miss Baker, got a minute?” Isbecki stopped her as she was leaving work.

“Yeah, sure, Detective Isbecki, right?“ she smiled.

"Right. Listen, I was wondering, have you ever been to New York before?”

“My friend, Annalise, the one I moved up here to help, she brought me up here when we were in college to visit her folks. It was Christmas time. We went to Rockefeller center, visited Macy’s Santa, you know, all the holiday stuff,” she said.

“Well, um, would you want to go see some more of the sights and maybe get some dinner with me when you’re off this weekend,” he offered. “It’s not as pretty as it is at Christmas time, but it should be nice out this weekend.”

“That sounds nice,“ she smiled. "But before I accept, I have to tell you, Detective Is…,”

"Victor,” he interrupted.

“Victor. I work with police officers so I don’t date them,” she replied, “If the offer stands it’ll have to be just as friends.”

“Friends?” He looked as though he’d swallowed a fly but then brightened up again. “Yeah, hey, that’s no problem.”

“Look on the bright side, Victor,” she said, cheerfully. “I buy my own tickets and pay for my own dinner as friends.”

“Really?  This just friends thing might not be so bad, then,” he teased.  “You’re working Friday night?”

She nodded.  “I’m off Saturday.”

“What time should I pick you up?  Would two be okay?” He asked.

“Two is fine.  See you then.”  She patted his hand.

“Looking forward to it.”  He watched her walk out of the squad room before going to his desk.

“How’d it go?” Petrie asked.

“Friends.   We’re going out as friends,” he replied flatly.  “She doesn’t date cops.”

“I told you she was a smart girl.”

“Yeah, yeah.”  Friends.  Just friends.  Victor wasn’t sure he’d ever been just friends with a woman before.


	2. Big Brother

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 2 of writing challenge  
> Shannon has some news for Johnny.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I own nothing. 
> 
> Cobra Kai Fandom. But I’ll Never Stop Trying Universe

Another night. Another fight.  They spent more time screaming at each other than talking lately.  He was done. He couldn’t take it anymore. Being alone had to be better than this.

Johnny downed the whiskey left in the glass then started to pack a bag.  A weeks’ worth of clothes, his phone and charger, a few other odds and ends, and he was ready to go.   He’d get the rest later.  Before going he opened the door to the nursery and walked over to the crib and stood there, staring at the little boy sleeping peacefully inside, unaware that his world was turning upside down.  

Robby.  He didn’t want to leave him, but he didn’t want to raise him in a home where his parents fought all the time either.  His mind flashed back to his mom and Sid yelling at each other.  No.  He couldn’t do that.  It wasn’t fair.  He brushed the baby’s hair back from his face and stroked his chubby cheek, silently promising to be back to see him at the weekend.

With one last look back at the crib, Johnny shut the door to the room and left the apartment.  

“Hey, Bobby,” he said, into the phone.  “Can I crash with you and Barbara for a few days?”

* * *

True to his silent promise, and at Bobby and Barbara’s insistence that they didn’t mind him bringing Robby over, Johnny had picked Robby up on Friday evening and dropped him off again on Sunday afternoon.

It was clear that Shannon had just woken up when he got there.  She looked pale and sick.

“I see you waited a long time to go out on the make again,” Johnny snarled.

“Shut up.  You don’t know what you’re talking about,” she snapped back.

“The hell I don’t. You’re hung over.”

“No, I’m pregnant.”

“No, you’re not,” he scoffed, passing Robby to her.

“You’re right, Johnny. I’m not.  It’s just a ploy to keep you,” she replied, tiredly.  She cuddled Robby.  “Hey, Man, did you miss Mama?  I missed you!”  She picked up a photo from the bar and slapped it against Johnny’s chest.  “I’m not due in June.”

Johnny looked at the photo. It was an ultrasound.  Shannon really was pregnant.  “When did you find out?”

“Friday,” she said, sitting down with Robby in her lap.

He started to ask why she didn’t tell him then, but he already knew.  He had been a jerk when he’d picked Robby up.  As usual.

“June?”

She nodded.  “And if you say it isn’t yours, I’m going to kick you in the balls.”

“I wasn’t,” he said.  “I was…, I was just going to ask if… if it’s a girl, can we name her Laura?  And can I move back in? I want to be here for you and the baby this time.”

Shannon stared at him for the longest minute of his life.  “Yes, and yes.”

He smiled and went over to sit by her and Robby.  “Hey, Kiddo,” he said, lifting Robby up and putting him in his lap.  “You’re going to be a big brother.  What do you think about that?”

“He’s only fifteen months, Johnny,” Shannon laughed.  “I doubt he thinks much at all.”

“That’s what you think,” he countered.  “Look at those eyes, Babe.  He’s thrilled.  He’s going to be the best big brother ever.”


	3. Drinking Buddies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 3 of writing challenge  
> Johnny meets an unusual character when he takes Robby camping.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Crossover: Cobra Kai/Grimm fandoms.
> 
> I own nothing.

Monroe stretched and took a deep breath of the salty air.  He loved the Topanga National Park.  It was the best place for a midnight run.  A real midnight run.  He lowered his arms and woged into wolf form.  

He felt truly alive for the first time in weeks as he ran across the beach and through the mountain trails.  There was never anyone on the stretch of beach and mountains that he preferred.  No one ever came out that far, that late.  So why did he now find himself at the bottom a hill, tangled up with a blonde kehrseite?

The shock and fall had forced him to retract and he staggered to his feet just in time receive a roundhouse kick to the face, sending him sprawling on the ground again.

“Whoa! Whoa! Dude! Cut it out,” he yelled, trying to get back to his feet.

“What the fuck are you?” The blonde snarled, delivering a front kick to Monroe’s chest.

“I don’t want to have to do this, Dude,” Monroe pleaded, but the blonde didn’t let up.  Monroe woged again and tackled him, pinning him to the ground.

“I don’t want to hurt you, Man,” he growled as kindly as possible.  Looking into the man’s icy blue eyes, he saw fear, for sure, but also curiosity, and not one hint of insanity.  He decided to take a chance this time.  “If I let you up, do you promise to not kick me again?”

The blonde nodded and Monroe let him up, retracting as he got up himself.  

“What the hell are you?” The blonde demanded, taking a few large steps away.

“Just calm down,” Monroe held up his hands, then stretched his back.  “That is a really long story and falling down that hill, not to mention your Chuck Norris impersonation, hurt like a son of a bitch and I, for one, could use a beer.  Why don’t we go up to your campsite, have a beer, and I’ll tell you all you want to know?”

“You’re not going up there,” the man snapped, defensively.

“Oh, I get it,” Monroe nodded, sniffing the air.  “Your kid is up there.  Don’t worry.  I don’t eat kids.  I’m a vegan.”  He started up the hill with the man trailing behind him.  

It wasn’t like he could do much else, the blonde reasoned.  He couldn’t stop the ‘guy’ if he wanted to, so maybe giving him a beer and befriending him was the best course of action.  Even if it did get him uncomfortably close to where his son slept in their tent.

“What’s your name, stranger?” Monroe asked, trying to sound light and friendly.

“Johnny Lawrence.”

“Monroe.“ He turned an extended his hand.  "I have a first name, but I don’t like it much so I just stick to Monroe.  Nice to meet you.”

“I’ll reserve judgment about that for now if you don’t mind,” Johnny replied, staring at his outstretched hand.

“Fair enough,” Monroe laughed. He walked into Johnny’s campsite and took a seat by the fire while Johnny got them some beers.

“That back there in the woods,” Johnny asked.  “Am I drunk or was that real?”

“By the smell of you, you’re probably drunk, but it was real, too,” he answered.

“So, what the fuck are you?” Johnny asked, moving his own chair to be between the ‘man’ and the tent. “A werewolf or something?”

“Dude! Do you know how insulting that is?“ Monroe exclaimed. "I’m a Blutbad.”

"A what?”

“A Blutbad. A big, bad wolf.” Monroe explained. “You know like Little Red Hood? Peter and wolf? the Three Little Pigs? Though that one has been completely bastardized by the Beaurschwins.”

"The fairy tales?”  Johnny shook his head in disbelief.

“Fairy tales to you, history to me,” Monroe said, taking a sip of the beer and grimacing.  “This stuff tastes like piss.  You should get you some craft beer, or at least some Blue Moon.”

“I like Coors,” Johnny answered.  “What the fuck are you talking about?”

“What you saw back there.  I’m a Blutbad.  Look, things aren’t what you think they are.  Those ‘fairy tale creatures,’ they’re real.  The big bad wolf, the three little pigs, Peter Rabbit.  It’s true.  All of it.  Well, most of it.  Those Grimm bastards did a real number on our history in their damn fairy tales.  Fun enough one of their descendants is now my best friend.  I’ll talk him into changing the stories one day,” Monroe shrugged.

“Are you sure I’m not going crazy?” Johnny asked.

“You probably are, but not about this,” Monroe replied.

“Can…, Can you do that again?” Johnny asked, staring at him.

“Fine,” he sighed, realizing that Johnny needed to see him in the light to accept it.  “But this is the last time because it doesn’t work like that.”  He woged for a minute, then retracted.

“And there are more of you?”

He nodded, “Not just blutbads, tons of others.”

“Can anyone see you?  Why haven’t I heard of this before?”

“Well, you have, you just called it fairy tales or urban legends,” he shrugged.  “Are you okay with this?  Most kehrseite can’t handle seeing a fully woged wesen.  Sorry, people like you and people like me.”

“Are you going to hurt my kid?” Johnny couldn’t believe he was starting to relax around this…, whatever this was.

“Dude,” Monroe deadpanned.  “I told you I’m a vegan and Blutbads aren’t baby eaters anyway.”

“There are baby eaters?” Johnny’s eyes were wide and round.

“Yeah, but not anywhere near here, they preferred tropical areas,” Monroe said, dismissively.  “Look, Dude, you have nothing to worry about.  You’ll probably never see another wesen in your life.  You’re more in danger of being hit by lightning than meeting up with another woged wesen.  That means in their other form.  We like that part of us to stay hidden.  People hurt things they don’t understand.  If I had ever dreamed someone would be camping out here, I would have never been out running.  It’s just…, you know, sometimes that primal urge gets to you.”

“Is it crazy that I’m starting to believe this?” Johnny asked.

“Completely,” Monroe said.  “But the alternative is insanity, so you’re doing pretty good.  I just wouldn’t talk about it when you get back.  You go camping much?”

“No,” Johnny admitted.  “My kid’s school had a big camping trip that he missed because he had mono.  I told him I’d take him to make up for it.”

“I had mono once,” Monroe said, leaning back and relaxing.  “Molly Lucero.  It was worth every minute of it.”

Johnny laughed, despite himself.  “Never had mono, but I know a few girls I would have gladly suffered for.”

The two men talked their way through another six pack before going their separate ways.  Monroe promising to take him out for a drink next time he was in town and Johnny promising to look him up if he ever got up to Portland.

The next morning, Robby looked around at all the beer bottles.  “Did you drink all these, Dad?” He asked, sounded slightly angry.

“Nah,” Johnny said.  “I met a guy out on the trails when I went to take a leak and gave him a few.

“Dad!  Don’t you know that’s how horror movies start?!”  Robby exclaimed.

“Son, you have no idea,” Johnny laughed.  


	4. Happy Thanksgiving

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 4 of writing challenge  
> Scott gets a special visitor on Thanksgiving.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Equalizer Fandom
> 
> I Miss My Friend Universe
> 
> I own nothing.

It was wet and rainy and miserable and Scott McCall’s mood was as dismal and grey as the sky outside.  It was Thanksgiving. But it wasn’t Thanksgiving. He was stuck in France so it was just Thursday. He knew he should be grateful for the opportunity to study at the Academy and usually he was, but today, well, he was just plain homesick. 

He trudged through the wet streets with his head down, not paying attention to the beautiful sights of the city. Instead, his thoughts were on the Thanksgiving before. Robert had been working, of course, and his mother and stepfather had gone to Florida with some friends, so he’d spent it at the Kostmayers with Joey. He had hesitated when she had suggested it, saying he didn’t want to intrude on family but she had shushed him, saying her family was so large no one would even notice an extra person, not to mention she’d already asked Babula and it would insult the older lady if he didn’t go, and he didn’t want to insult her Babula, now did he? 

Of course, he didn’t. Mrs. Kostmayer was like the grandmother he’d never had. She’d always been so warm and welcoming to him. 

True to her word, other than a few kids asking if he was Joey’s boyfriend, no one had noticed. He’d spent the day watching football with Uncle Nick, who for a man of the cloth, was very passionate about the Jets.  

It had been a great day, especially getting to see Joey’s face when, halfway through the meal, Mickey walked in and asked why they started without him. Seeing her eyes light up had been the best part of the day. 

He missed Joey. He’d tried to call her earlier in the day but had gotten her machine instead. He decided to call her again when he got back to his crummy hotel room.  Not that it was crummy, it was actually a pretty great room in a beautiful bed and breakfast, but today everything was crummy.  

Maybe it had been too early when he’d called. He never could keep the time difference straight. If it was ten in Paris, then it should be six in New York. No, four. It would be four in New York. She might be at home still.  Then he’d go out and see if he could at the least, find a with a turkey sandwich or something for a late dinner.

“ Mr. McCall, you have a guest waiting for you in the parlor,” the desk clerk informed him when he checked in.  "‘A young lady.’

'A young lady?  He tried to think of who it might be.  It could be that girl he met in a dance club the week before, or maybe the waitress at the bistro down the street.  It wouldn’t be the new secretary at the academy and any of his orchestra mates wouldn’t have been able to beat him here.

“Excuse me?” he said, stepping into the parlor. 

The girl stood up and turned around.  “Scott!” 

“Joey!”  He couldn’t believe she was there.  In Paris.  With him.  “JOEY!!”  He crossed the room and grabbed her up in a hug spinning her around.  “How?! Why?!  You know what?  I don’t care.  You’re here!  That’s all that matters!”

This Thanksgiving may not be so bad after all!


	5. Babysitting Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 5 of writing challenge  
> Bobby helps Becca babysit the twins.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Karate Kid Fandom- A Careless Man’s Careful Daughter Universe
> 
> I own nothing.

Bobby hated having to walk to the door to pick Becca up.  Well, that wasn’t true.  He didn’t mind that.  He hated that Sensei almost always answered the door and he always grilled him about where they were going and everything they were doing, even though he already knew.  Today wasn’t any different.  If anything it was worse.   Sensei was wearing a suit and already looked very annoyed when he opened the door.  

“Brown.” He smiled in a way that was very unsettling to Bobby, as though he’d just won some victory. He called up the stairs, “Rebecca Anne, get down here!“ He grabbed her jacket from behind the door without moving to let Bobby in.

As soon as Becca was on the bottom step, John held out her jacket. "Go now and you can stay out until eleven.”

That caught Bobby’s attention. Becca’s curfew was ten thirty for as long as they had been dating. Something was definitely going on.

“Daddy,” Becca giggled, taking the jacket and putting it over her arm. “Mom says we can’t leave until she talks to Muriel. You wouldn’t be telling me to do something that mom told me not to, would you?” she grinned, pleased with herself.

“Watch it, Smartass, "John warned before opening the door wider with a sigh. "Might as well come in, Brown. Her mother got to her first.”

“And I always will,” Cara said, coming into the hall. “You’re not getting out of this, Johnny Ray. So you might as well suck it up, tie that tie, plaster whatever you think passes for a smile on that handsome face and deal with it because we are leaving in ten minutes.”

“We don’t have a babysitter.”

“What’s going on?” Bobby whispered to Becca.

“Mom’s cousin is getting married in Santa Monica. The babysitter is thirty minutes late, which is fine with Daddy because he doesn’t want to go anyway,” she whispered back.

“Becca and Bobby can watch the twins,” Cara replied. “You don’t mind, do you?’

Bobby started to answer but Becca stopped him. “We reserve the right not to answer, because whatever the answer, one of you will think its the wrong answer,” she said. “And we will still have to do whatever we’re told anyway.”

“She is such a smartass,” Cara said to John, shaking her head.

“She’s her mother’s daughter,“ he smirked. "And we aren’t leaving them here alone.”

“They’ll be babysitting, not alone,” she replied.

“Can we discuss this in private?”

“Sure,” Cara said, motioning for him to follow her out on the porch.

“Looks like I’m probably going to end up babysitting,” Becca said, hanging her jacket back up. “I won’t be mad if you want to bail.”

“It's okay,” Bobby said, taking his jacket off. “You help me with Jessie. I don’t mind helping you with Amy and Emily, if Sensei lets me stay, that is.”

“Come on. They’re in the den. Let’s go see what they’re doing.“ She quickly snuck a kiss before grabbing his hand and pulling him back to the den, where Emily and Amy were playing Battleship.

"Bobby’.” Emily jumped up from her seat and grabbed his hand. “Come play with  
me.”

“No, me!“ Amy chimed in.

Becca rolled her eyes and let his hand go. The twins loved Bobby and he was always so patient with them. Way more than the other Cobras were.

’‘I’ll play with you, Amy,” Becca said, sitting down beside her. “Bobby can be your partner next round if we’re still here.”

Amy looked unhappy as Emily cheered, that’s probably why Bobby purposefully guessed wrong to let them win. The twins were setting the boards up again when Cara and John came back inside.

“Okay, girls, we’re leaving,” Cara said.  "Rebecca, I wasn’t able to get in touch with Muriel, so she either on her way or just forgot.  We need you to stay with your sisters.  Bobby can stay too if he wants.  If Muriel shows up, you two can leave, but be home at ten thirty.  If she doesn’t then Bobby needs to leave at eleven.  Dad and I’ll be home around midnight.  All the numbers are by the phone.”

“Yes ma’am,” Becca sighed.  She knew this was going to happen.  Well, at least they were letting Bobby stay.  

“Girls, you’re to listen to Becca while Mom and I are out,” John said.  “She’s in charge.  If there’s an emergency and you can’t get us, call Terry.”

“Can we just call him now?” Emily asked.  

“No.  Only if there’s an emergency,” John said.  “And don’t go cause an emergency so you can call him.”

“Cause an emergency?” Bobby whispered, not sure if he wanted to stay there after all.

“They’ve done it.”

“You can order pizza for supper.  Make sure the girls are ready for Mass in the morning,” Cara said.  

“Yes, ma’am,” Becca said.

“I’d watch my back if I were you,” John teased as she followed them to the door to lock up.  “The twins may take you out to be able to call Terry.”

“Well, he is more fun,” she laughed.  “Bye, Daddy.  Bye, Mom.”  She hugged them before locking up and heading back to the den.  “Now what?”


	6. Babysitting Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 6 of the writing challenge  
> Bobby helps Becca babysit the twins.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Karate Kid Fandom- A Careless Man’s Careful Daughter Universe
> 
> I own nothing.

After another round of Battleship, Becca suggested that they go outside. It was way easier to get the twins to go to sleep if they played outside all evening.  She sat down on the back steps beside Bobby and called her German Shepherd, Jack, over to them. Bobby loved Jack, and Emily and Amy’s dog, Hot Dog. He wanted a dog, but his mom had a twelve-year-old cat that didn’t play well with other pets

“Hey, Jack! Hey, boy!” He said, rubbing the dog’s neck and scratching his ears. He took the tennis ball and threw it toward the fence. Jack took off after his ball.  Bobby slid closer to Becca and put his arm around her waist.

“Do I want to know what they did to cause an emergency?” Bobby asked.

"Don’t you want to be surprised when they do it again?” she smiled.

“Did it involve a trip to the hospital?”

She shook her head. “No one was hurt.”  She thought for a minute then added, “Well, Uncle Terry cut his head open, but he didn’t go to the hospital. Mom stitched it up in the kitchen. That was kind of gross.”

“Nah, my Dad does that all of the time, between me and Adam and our friends, someone is always needing stitches or an ace bandage,” he replied.

“At your kitchen table?” she questioned. “It was bleeding and gross.” She shuddered, remembering all the red gauze on the tray when Cara was done. She’d decided then and there that she didn’t care what Cara or her grandmother said, she wasn’t being a nurse when she grew up.

“No, he usually does it in his office,” Bobby conceded.

“That’s not as bad as the kitchen table.”

Bobby laughed and looked out at Emily and Amy playing on their swing set.  Watching them was a lot easier than watching Jessie. She had to be watched and entertained constantly while they could play on their own.

“Hey. Bobby, watch me!” Amy called out jumping from the swing and promptly fell flat on her hands and knees, skinning them up. So much for it being easier to watch them.

Becca ran over to her and examined her wounds.

“Come on, let’s go get you cleaned up,” she said, hugging her sister.

“It hurts to stand up,” Amy whined.

“Well, I can’t carry you,” she replied, firmly.

“I got her,“ Bobby said, picking her up.  Becca rolled her eyes at the adoring look Amy gave him.

"Em, go to Mom and Dad’s room and get the first aid kit from the bathroom. It’s under the sink in a green box with a red cross on it. It has mom’s name written on it in red.  And don’t come back saying that you can’t find it.”

“She needs to go to the hospital,” Em cried. “She’s bleeding. Can we call Uncle Terry?”

“This isn’t an emergency,” Becca scoffed. “She just needs a band-aid. we’re not calling Uncle Terry for a band-aid. Besides, we’d have to call Mom and Dad too and do you want them coming home for this?”

’‘No,” Emily admitted, running up the back stairs.

“Set her on the counter,” she said, moving a dishtowel over by the kitchen sink.

“Here.” Emily handed Becca the kit. “But it doesn’t have mama’s name on it.”

“Yes, it does,” she replied pointing to the lid.  “Cara Sullivan.  Right there.”

“That’s not her name.  Her name is Kreese, like ours,” Emily insisted.

“It wasn’t when she joined the Army.”

“Why?”

“Because she wasn’t married.”

“Why not?”

"Because she didn’t even know Daddy when she joined the army,” she explained.

“Why not?“

’'I don’t know. Ask them.” Becca’s patience was wearing thin. “Why are you asking me all this now?” she began setting out antiseptics and bandages.

“If I don’t ask, I won’t know,” Emily shrugged. “Do you have to take your husband’s last name when you get married?”

“No,” Bobby answered, trying to distract her. “Becca and I have a teacher who got married last year but she still uses her own name and another who uses both names.”

“I don’t want to change my name.  When I get married, my husband can use my name,” Emily said, decidedly. “Can you do that?”

“Sure,” he shrugged. “I don’t think there are any laws about it.”

“Would you?”

He nodded. “I like my name, but if it was important to the lady I wanted to marry. I would change it. It’s just a name.”

"Don’t, don’t, DON’T!” Amy shrieked as Becca tried to clean her knees with antiseptic, ending the name conversation.

“Hey, hey, it’s okay,” Bobby said. “Here. Hold my hand. It’ll be okay. Becca takes good care of you, right?”

Amy sniffed and nodded.

“There,” Becca declared, putting the last band-aid in place. She lifted her off the counter to the floor.  "You and Em go find a movie for us to watch.  Bobby and I’ll order the pizza and be in there in a minute.“

’'Okay.” Amy agreed happily. She grabbed Emily’s hand.

“Are you okay?” Emily asked.

“Yeah,” Amy sniffed again.  “But I still think she should have let us call Uncle Terry.”

Becca rolled her eyes again.  “Dad might be right.  They may try to take us out so they can call him to come to babysit.”


	7. Babysitting Part 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 20 of the writing challenge  
> Bobby helps Becca babysit the twins.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Karate Kid Fandom- A Careless Man’s Careful Daughter Universe
> 
> I own nothing.

Two hours later, they’d managed to get the twins fed, bathed, and in their pajamas without anything worse than a flooded bathroom floor from Emily not shutting the shower curtain completely. Nothing a few towels and a mop couldn’t fix.

Now, they were watching a movie in the den. The girls loved “Annie”, so turning it on was a sure-fire way to get them to calm down a without the fight of actually saying these horrible words.

Becca and Bobby were cuddled on the sofa while the twins were laying on the floor near the television.

“Sorry you’re stuck watching this,” she apologized. She loved “Annie”, too, but knew a lot of people their age saw it as childish.

“Nah, it’s cool. I was just thinking that Jessie would like it,” he replied.

Becca grabbed the ringing phone off the end table. "Hello. Kreese residence. This is…, oh, hey…, no, they went to that wedding in

Santa Monica.”

“Oh! I’m telling,” Emily crowed. “You’re not supposed to tell people we are home alone!”

Becca rolled her eyes. “It’s just Uncle Terry. He can know we are home alone. He needs to be warned in case you two blow something up this time,” she said to her sister before laughing at whatever was said on the other end of the line. “Whatever. You know you’d come help me…, Yes, sir. I think, Mama said about midnight, but this cousin has been left at the altar twice already, so really…, I’m surprised they haven’t gotten back already…, Yes, sir. I’ll tell him…, Yes, sir. Bye.”

She hung up the phone to see the twin’s angry faces that she hadn’t let them have the phone. “He didn’t want to talk to us, he wanted to talk to Daddy. Watch the movie or go to bed.”

"We’ll watch the movie,” Amy said, pulling Emily down beside her.

Becca sat back down beside Bobby, slipping her hand in his.

Once the movie was over, Emily and Amy went to bed with little fuss. Becca was pleasantly surprised until they came running down the stairs shrieking about how some “huge,” ugly bug in their bedroom.

Becca rolled her eyes. "Don’t mess with it. It won’t bother you.”

“It’s flying all around,“ Amy said.

"What if it lands on us?” Emily asked.  “We can’t go to bed until Daddy gets home to get rid of it.“ she sat down on the sofa.

Becca rolled her eyes. On the one hand, the bug probably was not real. On the other hand, if she went up there and it was a moth, she’d scream louder than the twins.  She hated moths, just something about the way they flew at you…, she shuddered.  

Still, letting the twins stay up until Mom and Dad got home at midnight was equally out of the question.  Mom would have a cow if they were too tired to go to Mass the next day. She bit her lip, then looked at Bobby and smiled, what she hoped was sweetly.

“Would you mind getting rid of a possibly imaginary bug?”

“It’s not imaginary!” Amy insisted.

“Sure, Babe,” he laughed, following the twins up to their room. He came back down a few minutes later, with his cupped hands held out in front of him.  Emily ran down and opened the front door.  He let the rather large Tiger moth go on the front lawn.

“Can you go to bed now?” Becca asked the twins.

“I guess,” Amy grumbled.

“Come on,” Emily said, grabbing her hand and stomping up the stairs. “She just wants us to go to bed so she and Bobby can smooch.”  
Becca covered her face, turning bright red. “I’m going to strangle her one day.”

“Come on,” Bobby said, with a laugh. He pulled her hands away from her face.  “Let’s go watch a movie or something until I have to leave.”

“Okay,” she agreed, happy that he wasn’t going to make a big deal about what Emily said.

In the den, she looped her arms around his neck.  “Thank you for getting rid of the super huge, ugly but not imaginary bug for me.”

“Anytime,” he said, pulling her close.  “I’ll take care of all the super huge, ugly bugs for you, real or imaginary.”

“My hero,” she laughed, kissing him, letting him pull her in his lap as he sat down.

Not more than a minute later, the front door opened and shut.

“Becca?” Cara called out.

She quickly slid off his lap and sat on the sofa, trying to smile and look innocent when her mother came in the den.

“Hi, Mom.  You’re home early.  What happened?”  It was only nine thirty.  
“She got left at the altar again,” John laughed, coming in behind Cara.

“Really?” Becca covered her mouth to keep from laughing.  That would be mean.

“No, not really,” Cara replied, shoving John playfully.  “They eloped because Aunt Eleanor was being a pain in the behind.”

“Yeah, right,” John scoffed. “How come your aunt was the only one who knew that?  Has anyone ever seen this guy?”

“Of course, they have,” Cara couldn’t help laughing at the absurdity of the situation herself. “But, honestly, I’d believe it.  I’d believe Aunt Eleanor was the reason she was left at the alter the other two times.  The one wedding I was in as a teen, Aunt Eleanor got upset because the Matron of Honor was pregnant, and she just couldn’t have pregnant people in the pictures.  The girl was like two months.  You couldn’t even tell.  She’s crazy. Eloping was the only way Susan was going to get married.” She looked at her watch, then back at Becca and Bobby.  “Thanks for babysitting, though.  It’s still early.  Why don’t you two go get some ice cream or something?  You can stay out until eleven, just this once.”

She didn’t have to offer twice.

* * *

 

The End


	8. Floods and Fires

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 7 of Writing Challenge  
> Uncle Terry has to step in to avert disaster the first time Becca is left to babysit the twins at night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Karate Kid Fandom: A Careless Man’s Careful Daughter Universe
> 
> I own nothing.

Becca Kreese had been so excited.  She’d never been allowed to keep the twins at night by herself and Mom and Daddy was even going to pay her.  She kept them after school when they were at work.  This shouldn’t be this much harder.  Just feed them and put them to bed when they all were done playing.  Oh, and make sure that they take baths.  No problem, right?

An hour later as she stood in the middle of their now flooded kitchen, she couldn’t believe she thought this was going to be no problem. How had they done this?  She’d only left them alone long enough to go do the laundry.  She’d left them alone for way longer than that before.  

“What did you do?”  She demanded.  Water and bubbles were overflowing from the dishwasher.

“We wanted to help,” Emily said.  “So, we started the dishwasher for you.”

“Oh, no!  What soap did you put in there?” she asked, hoping she was wrong.  

“The soap from the sink,” Amy replied, proudly.

“NO!  You can’t do that,” she cried as more bubbles and water poured out of the dishwasher. She grabbed the door and tried to turn it off, but the latch was stuck.  She couldn’t turn it off.  Okay. Don’t panic.  The water came from under the sink.  She could just turn the water off.  She opened the cabinet and tried to turn off the water, but it wouldn’t turn.   Water was starting to leak from the line going to the dishwasher.  Maybe she panicked and tried to turn it a little too hard as the line became disconnected and water started spraying everywhere.  

She shrieked and scrambled to her feet.  Water was pouring out.  She ran to the phone to call their parents.  They had just gone out for dinner.  She called the restaurant, but no one answered the phone.  She didn’t know what to do.  

“Daddy said call Uncle Terry if there was an emergency,” Emily said, splashing in the water like it was a game.

Uncle Terry!  He’d know what to do!  She quickly dialed the number.

“Uncle Terry!” she cried into the phone as soon as he picked up.  “Uncle Terry, help!  The twins broke the dishwasher and there is water everywhere and I tried to turn it off, but it won’t turn off and I don’t know what to do!”

“Becca?  Slow down,” he instructed.  “What’s going on?”

She slowed down and told him again.

“And you tried to turn it off under the sink?” he asked.

“Yes, sir, but it broke and now water is going everywhere!”

“Okay, Princess.  Calm down. Don’t cry.  I’m on my way.  Just try to contain the mess in the meantime,” Terry said.  “Keep trying to call John.  They may be closer than I am.”

“Yes, sir,” she wiped her eyes as she hung up the phone. “Uncle Terry is on his way over. Run upstairs and get as many towels as you can find.”

It was no use.  By the time Terry arrived all three girls were dripping wet and the kitchen floor was starting to resemble a wading pool.

“Whoa!” he exclaimed, stopping short in the door.  The twins seemed to be having a great time while Becca looked like she was going to have a nervous breakdown.  He quickly took charge.  “Okay, everyone out of the pool.  Emy and Amily, go upstairs and get dried off.  Princess, go out to the garage, get your dad’s toolbox, and meet me outside.  We can shut the water off from outside the house.”

“Yes, sir,” Becca said, going through the kitchen door to the garage while the twins ran upstairs.  

“That should stop the water,” he said, shutting off the water at the meter.  “But it’s to the whole house so I’ll go call a plumber and help you clean the kitchen up.”

Back in the house, a now dry Emily and Amy were sitting on the backstairs, looking rather angelic for the people who had just flooded the kitchen with bubbles.

“Go get into some dry clothes before you get sick and bring down anything you can find to soak up water,” Terry instructed Becca, as he looked up the number for a plumber.

“Yes, sir.”  She ran upstairs.  

She was coming back down when she heard a crash and Terry yell, “Son of a bitch!”

“OHH! Uncle Terry said a bad word!” Emily crooned.

“No, I didn’t,” he replied, quickly.   “I didn’t say that.  You didn’t hear that.”

Becca ran down the last four steps to see Terry getting up off the floor, holding the side of his head.  

“Uncle Terry, you’re bleeding!” She exclaimed.

He pulled his hand away and looked at it.  “Mother…,” he caught himself.  “Ow.”  He took a hand towel from Becca and pressed it against his head while helping her clean up as much water as they could.  “Wait! What’s burning?” he asked, as they were mopping up the last of the water.  

“Oh!” Becca cried.  “I forgot about dinner!”

“Of course,” Terry sighed, shaking his head.  He opened the oven, letting rolls of smoke billow out. He grabbed the charred pan and threw it in the sink.  “This is why I don’t have children.”

“I’m sorry,” she whispered, looking stricken.

“No, Princess,” he softened.  “I’m sorry.  I shouldn’t have said that.”  He hugged her.  “Just like I shouldn’t have said that word earlier either.  You know I love you and the Doublemint twins like you were mine. Come on, let’s get out of here before anything else explodes, catches on fire, or otherwise self-destructs. We’ll order some take out while we wait for the plumber or your folks, whoever gets here first, okay?”

Four hours later, the sink and dishwasher had been repaired, the kitchen cleaned, the water turned back on, and everyone was fed, happy, and dozing in front of the tv.  That’s how Cara and John found them when they came home.

“Terry?” John sounded confused.  “What are you doing here?”

Terry jerked awake and immediately grabbed his head in pain. “Ow!”

“What did you do to your head?” Cara asked, crossing the room to examine his head.  “Ew. You need a few stitches in that,” she declared, taking the bandage off.

“Daddy?” Becca blinked, waking up.  “The twins broke the dishwasher and flooded the kitchen and I burnt dinner and Uncle Terry came over to help me.”  She yawned.  “And I’m never babysitting again.”

“There are a few more details, but that’s the gist of it,” Terry agreed.

“Come on,” Cara said, pulling Terry to his feet. “I’ll take care of your head and you two can tell us those details and you better stay here tonight.  You probably shouldn’t be driving.”

“Daddy,” Becca said when he came to check on her before bed. “I’m sorry about tonight.  I just left Emily and Amy alone for a few minutes. I didn’t know they would try that.”

“It’s okay,” he said, sitting down beside her.  “No one is to blame.  It was just an accident.”

“Yeah, I don’t think it was,” Becca replied.  

“What do you mean?”

“Well, the twins were awfully quick to tell me that I was supposed to call Uncle Terry,” she shrugged.

“Come on, Becca,” John laughed.  “They’re five.  I doubt they knew that putting dish soap in the dishwasher would cause such a mess. They were just trying to help their big sister.”

“If you say so,” she said, hugging him.  “But I don’t think Uncle Terry will ever answer the phone himself again.”

“You might be right,” he agreed.  “Go to sleep.”

“Goodnight, Daddy.”

“Goodnight, Princess.”  He kissed her head and turned off the lights as he left the room, laughing to himself that Becca actually thought two five-year-olds could have planned such a big disaster.


	9. Hairbows

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 8 of the writing challenge  
> The Kreese twins start a fashion trend because Uncle Terry would never tell his girls no.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Karate Kid Fandom: A Careless Man’s Careful Daughter Universe
> 
> I own nothing.

Terry was on his way to a business meeting at Beauty and Essex but he had to stop by John’s first. Well, he didn’t  _have_ to stop.   He wanted to stop.  He didn’t really care if John ever paid him rent on the dojo.  If that old building was a help to John and his girls, then that was all Terry cared about. But he also knew enough not to tell John that, not to treat him like a charity case.  Not that Terry thought of John that way.  He just wanted to help his friend who had saved his life more than once.  

If he was being truthful, he’d much rather spend the evening drinking beer with John on the Kreese’s front porch than at an investors’ meeting at the upscale restaurant in LA.  

“Uncle Terry, you look pretty,” Amy breathed, taking in his Armani suit and overcoat.

“Handsome,” he replied, with a teasing grin.  “Girls look pretty.  Boys look handsome.”

“I don’t know,” John smirked, looking him over.  “Pretty seems the right word here.”

Terry pulled a face and flipped him off when the girls weren’t watching.

“No, thanks.  You’re not that pretty yet,” John grinned.

“You need a bow,” Emily declared.  “Then you’d be really pretty.”

“Yeah,” John choked back a laugh.  “Don’t you want to be really pretty?”

“That’s okay, girls,” he replied, glaring at John.  “I don’t need a bow.”

“Please?” Amy asked.  “You can have one of mine.”  She and Emily ran upstairs to get a hair ribbon.

“I hate you,” Terry growled.

“Tell them no,” he shrugged.

“Yeah, then I’ll tell them there’s no Santa Claus and you’re the tooth fairy,” Terry replied, resigning himself to wearing a bow and listening to John make wisecracks about it until he left.  The girls were back with a thin white ribbon that they carefully tied around his ponytail. He wouldn’t dare hurt their feelings. Oh well, he’d just take it out after he left.

“There, now you’re beautiful,” Emily declared.

“Thank you, Darlings,” he said, kindly, pretending to admire his reflection in the window.  “You were right.  A bow was just what I needed.”  Then glared at Kreese again.  “You’re going to pay for this.”  He hugged the twins as John sent them off to play.

Three beers later, he forgot all about the white ribbon in his hair when he got to his meeting.

“Mr. Silver,” one of the men laughed.  “Are you wearing a hair bow?”

Shit.  He touched the ribbon still in his hair.  Never one to be intimidated or chastised by anyone, he pulled his hand away and smiled. “Of course.  Aren’t you?  They’re all the rage now.”

At the next meeting, every investor with enough hair to tie back had a thin ribbon tied in their hair and that was how Amy made her mark in men’s fashion before she was even eight. 


	10. A Pack of Skittles and Dr. Pepper

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 9 of the writing challenge.  
> Robby has to give a speech on a very important day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cobra Kai Fandom- But I’ll Never Stop Trying Universe
> 
> I own nothing.

Robby smiled as he took the microphone from Mac.

“Thanks, Sis,” he said, hugging her.  It was time to give his toast.  He hated this but he loved Laura, so he took a deep breath and plastered on a smile.

“Hello everyone.  First, thanks for coming today and ditto to all the things Mac said that Mom and Ali said that I’m supposed to say that I’ve forgotten already.  For those of you who don’t know me, I’m Robby.  I’m Laura’s older brother.  When she asked me to be her Man of Honor, I don’t think she realized that I was going to get to stand up here and talk about her and she wouldn’t be able to stop me.” He stopped to look back at Laura, who hid behind her bouquet and smiled.  He turned back to the crowd.

“Unfortunately, I can’t tell you any deep dark secrets.  She tells those to Mac now.  We will have to get her back up here before this ‘bridesmaid’s immunity’ thing runs out. So, since I can’t tell you anything juicy, I tried to think of something else to tell you.   That’s when I realized that Laura is literally the first thing I remember.  My first memory is of Dad waking me up at two a.m…,”

“Ten p.m.,” Johnny interrupted.  

“I was two.  It seemed a lot later to me,” Robby shrugged.  “Anyway, ten p.m., two a.m., whichever, Dad got me up and said I had to go spend the night with Uncle Bobby so that he and Mommy could go get my new baby sister.  Well, I didn’t know who this kid was that she got to stay out all night, but whatever, I was going to get to play with Ryan, so it was all cool. Then around lunchtime, Uncle Bobby took me to the hospital to meet the baby sister Mom and Dad had been talking about for months. And I have to say she wasn’t making a good impression. She hadn’t even been in town a day yet and she had already been out all night and had to go to the Doctor. I was starting to rethink this big brother thing I’d been signed up for so, I traded her to Uncle Bobby for a pack of tropical skittles and a Dr. Pepper.  Then I saw Dad holding this pink blanket wrapped bundle. That cried. Loudly. I knew I had made the right choice in trading it for some Skittles.  Dad picked me up and put that pink blanket wrapped, crying bundle in my lap and she stopped crying. That was it.  I was gone.  This little sister thing was going to be great.  Somebody to look up to me, admire me, someone to teach all the cool things I knew, which at two was so much, and no way was Uncle Bobby taking her home with him.  She was my new best friend.   I thought I was supposed to the one who looked after her, taught her things, and made her a better person, but she’s the one who looks after me, teaches me, and makes me be a better person.  She’s still my best friend.”

He looked at the bride and groom again and smile.

“To my sister and my new brother-in-law, I wish you the best life has to offer and Dude, I’m not sure but I think you owe Uncle Bobby a pack of Skittles and Dr. Pepper now.”


	11. They Have Each Other

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 10 of the writing challenge  
> A bad date turns disastrous for Joey Kostmayer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fandom- The Equalizer- I Miss My Friend Universe
> 
> I own nothing
> 
> Trigger warnings: Attempted sexual assault and violence described. Ethnic slur used.

It had been the worse date Joey had been on in, well, ever. The guy was pushy and rude to everyone, including her.  She was thrilled to see her building in the distance.

“Well, thank you for dinner, Alec, but this is my stop,” she said, politely slowing her steps as they approach her building.  Unfortunately, instead of realizing that she didn’t want him following her to her apartment, he took or pretended to take, it as her wanting to spend more time with him, wrapping an arm around her waist.

In the lobby, she had to get more direct.

 “Alec, I’m sorry. Dinner was nice but I just don’t see this relationship going anywhere. I’d rather you not come up to my apartment.“ Maybe it was rather blunt, but she wasn’t Mickey Kostmayer’s daughter for nothing.  

“Bitch,” he snarled, pushing away from her with a such a force it made her stumble, but she caught herself and turned to see him stomping away muttering about how he just wanted to get laid, not get married and she should have been honored, blah, blah, blah.

Whatever. As long as he was gone. She stepped into the elevator and pressed the button for her floor. She wondered if Scott would be home at the apartment they’d shared since her original roommate, Julia Schmidt, had gotten married three months before. It wasn’t his night to play at the club, but since he’d started dating his bandmate, Zandile, they’d been going out to other clubs on their nights off, networking, trying to get other gigs and more exposure.

Joey liked Zandi. She was smart and fun and really pushed Scott to be the best he could be. She encouraged him to get out of his ‘I’m doing fine mindset’ and do more with his musical talent. And she was the first girl since Jenny not to balk at the fact that his best friend was a girl. She couldn’t wait to tell them about this date if they were home and still awake.

She was just opening the door when a large, meaty hand closed over her mouth and nose and she was shoved bodily into the apartment. She panicked, clawing at the hand over her mouth. She couldn’t breathe and the heavyweight against her back caused her to fall to the floor, bringing her assailant down on top of her, knocking what was left of the air from her lungs.

"No frigid, Polak bitch is going to tell me no!” he whispered roughly in her ear.

Her eyes went wide and wild with fear. Alec! He must have doubled back and gone up the stairs. He eased his weight off her long enough to turn her on her back, pinning her hands to the floor. She drew in a deep breath of air into her lungs but before she could scream, he ground his mouth against hers bloodying her lips as he tried to force her mouth open with his tongue.

She was trying to hit and scratch him but it wasn’t stopping him. She looked around for anything she could use as a weapon but all she could see was Zandi’s flute laying on a chair.

That meant they were home! If she could scream, maybe she could get their attention if they weren’t asleep yet. She opened her mouth and nearly gagged as he tried to shove his tongue down her throat. She bit down as hard as she could.

"Bitch!” He swore again, hitting her across the face so hard she was sure he’d broken something, before slamming his mouth back against hers. Tears welled in her eyes. She couldn’t move, she couldn’t scream, and help was just ten feet away if only she could make some noise.

* * *

Zandile never slept well anymore. It was better when she slept with Scott, but she still woke at every bump in the night. That’s why she didn’t think much when she heard the first bump. Just a bad dream or maybe Joey coming in.  She turned on her side, curling around Scott’s sleeping form, trying to get back to sleep when she heard the unmistakable sound of skin hitting skin.  Her heart leaped into her throat.

“Scott! Scott!”  she whispered, shaking him frantically. “Wake up! Someone’s in the apartment!”

“It’s just Joey,“ he said, still half asleep.

"Someone just hit someone,” she replied, getting out of bed.

That brought Scott around. He was on his feet before Zandi could get the door open.  It took him a moment, just a moment, to make sense of the sight he was seeing.

He ran forward and kicked the guy square in the face, knocking him backward off Joey, who turned on her hands and knees and wretched, choking, and gasping for air.

“Get her out of here,” he called to Zandi. “And call the police.”

Zandi helped Joey up and rushed her into Scott’s bedroom, locking, then barricading the door.

Alec had gotten to his feet and charged Scott, hitting him in the stomach, slamming him against the wall. Scott managed to throw him off, punching him in the face again and again until Alec went down and stopped trying to get up. To be sure, Scott found a bit of rope and tied his wrists to the base of the bar before going to check on Joey.

She was sitting on his bed.  Zandi quickly went back to her side, putting her arms around the other girl.

“It’s okay, Baby,” Zandi crooned, rubbing her arms. “Scott is here.  We will take care of you.”  

The torn shirt, bloody mouth and nose, and most of all, broken look on Joey’s normally smiling face were almost more than he could take.  He wanted to go back out and finish the job with Alec.

He sat down on her other side and put his arm around her shoulders.  She flinched at first, as though she were afraid of him, but after a few seconds, she buried her face in his chest and cried.

“There now,” he said, stroking her hair and holding her tightly.  “It’ll be okay.  I won’t let anyone hurt you.”

After the police and EMTs came and left, Zandi helped her get cleaned up, with Scott never more than three steps away from her.

Upon hearing what happened, Robert called in an associate of his and Mickey’s to stand guard outside the apartment, but Joey still couldn’t sleep, so Scott stayed up with her all night, talking, watching bad television, and holding her, assuring her that she was safe until they both fell asleep around daybreak.  

Zandi wrapped a blanket around them, silently thankful that they had each other.  Scott would need Joey when she had to leave, and she already knew that she would have to. She kissed both their foreheads before going to Scott’s room and falling asleep herself.


	12. Cobra Kais Never Die

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 11 of the Writing Challenge.  
> Captian John Kreese meets a formidable nurse when he visits his injured soldiers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fandom: Karate Kid/Mentions from China Beach- A Careless Man’s Careful Daughter Universe.
> 
> I own nothing.
> 
> A/N: (I based Cara Sullivan Kreese on Dana Delany’s character Colleen McMurphy in China Beach, so some references, like the unit number, KC, and Jetset, are from that show.) Also, the military rules are most likely not correct.

Captain John Kreese had been stationed at the 510th Evac station for over a year and had managed to avoid stepping foot in the hospital for all that time.  A pretty good record for someone in Viet Nam.   But today, he couldn’t avoid it anymore.  Two of his men were there.  They’d both been injured on the last mission they’d gone out on.  Both were serious.  So serious that he hadn’t even been able to see them for three days.  He’d just gotten word this morning that Silver was finally awake.

He walked into the hospital ward and located his men in the corner of the room. Racine was sitting up in his bed, talking to Silver who was laying very still and clenching his fist in pain.  His face was drained of color, except the flush from the fever, so much that even the blue of his eyes seemed to be washed out.  He could tell by the forced smile and overly dramatic movements that Racine was making in the story he was telling that he was trying to distract the younger man from the pain and maybe lift his spirits a bit.  

Silver, unlike himself and Racine, wasn’t a Green Beret.  He was just a dumb kid who had the misfortune of getting assigned to the Cobra Kai unit as a radio operator.  And now he was probably going to die for it.  John decided right then that if Silver made it through his injuries, they were going to make the young man a Green Beret.  Not only had he expressed interest in that, but he needed the training.  If he was going to be required to follow John into all the messes they had to go through, then he needed the same training the rest of the squadron had, even if the powers that be just saw him as a ‘radio man’.

“What are you two doing, screwing around in bed?” he asked, walking over to them, faking a bravado he didn’t feel.  “Don’t tell me you’ve convinced these nice nurses that you’re still hurt.”  He sat down on the chair between their beds, shaking hands with Racine and patting Silver’s shoulder.  He winced slightly at how hot the other man felt, even just to touch.  He’d been shot in the belly and had lost a lot of blood before John could get him back to the hospital and now, he’d taken an infection in the wound.  To top it off, it didn’t seem that the antibiotics were helping.  Racine, on the other hand, had taken a bullet to the leg and while serious, was going to recover after a few weeks in bed.  

“Shit,” John swore.  “Ain’t nothing wrong with you that a few hours with KC couldn’t cure.” He grinned, referring to a civilian typist who had decided to take up the world’s oldest profession to supplement her government pay.  “Besides,  Cobra Kais never die.”

Racine laughed and Silver smiled weakly.  

“Oh, come on, Johnny-Boy,” Racine teased.  “That’d finish him off for sure.  He couldn’t go more than a round with KC when he didn’t have a hole in his gut.”

Silver raised a hand in the one finger salute before letting it fall back to the bed.  Both men could see the effort that one gesture had cost the boy.

“Well, hell,” John said.  “We know he’s just faking this shit anyway.  The pretty boy just wanted to sleep in for a few days.”

At that, the dark-haired nurse, who had been working near them, slammed the chart she was holding down on the duty desk, making even John jump.

“Soldier, can I see you outside?” She demanded, addressing John.

“Yes, ma’am,” he smirked, looking her up and down. She was definitely the best-looking woman he’d seen in a long time, maybe even ever.  “Guess I’m getting sent to the principal’s office, boys.”  He winked at them as he followed her out.

“What the hell are you doing?” the nurse asked, turning on him as soon as they were off the ward.  Her name tag identified her as Sullivan.

“Talking to my friends,” he replied.

“Ridiculing them for being hurt?” she shot back.  “You do realize that Silver is dying, don’t you?  He doesn’t need you telling him that he’s faking and all he needs is a good roll in the hay!”

“Look, Lady,” he snapped.

“That’s Lieutenant, Soldier,” she interrupted, folding her arms over her chest.  

John smiled, showing his even white teeth. Had this nurse actually just tried to pull rank on him?  He imitated her stance, folding his arms across his chest as well.  “That’s Captain, Lieutenant.  And don’t you dare try to lecture me about how I treat my men.  I know them.  I care about them.  You don’t!”

She looked at him for, really, for the first time. He was a Captain?  He didn’t look any older than the boys he’d come to see. He was still just a kid himself, not that she wasn’t.   “I…, I.., well, be that as it may, I’m in charge in that hospital, and I won’t have anyone upsetting my patients.”

Kreese softened.  “Look, Lieutenant, I know how serious it is.  I know the kid may still die.  I’m the one who brought him here and quite frankly, I don’t know how you’ve kept him alive this long.  But I’m their CO.  They look to me for guidance.  If I go in there and act like he’s dying, he’s going to give up.  But if I go in there and act like it’s no big deal like I think he’s faking, we will both know I’m lying, but maybe, just maybe, he won’t think its dire enough to give up just yet.  Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to see my men.”

Sullivan watched him walk back in the ward.  Well, he was their CO and he was there.  That was more than she could say for most.  

* * *

Two days later she saw him again, in the JetSet, the R and R club on China Beach.

“Buy you a drink?” She offered.

He looked her up and down, then at the nearly empty shot glass in his hand.  “Sure, why not?”

She motioned to the bartender to bring over two more.

“Silver’s doing better,” she reported.

“I know,” he said.  “I’ve been checking in, even if I haven’t been over to see them.”

“I heard that,” she conceded.  “Look, we got off on the wrong foot.  I was angry that I was losing a patient.  I couldn’t yell at the germs that were killing him, but I could yell at the person I thought was being a jerk to him.  You were right that he needed you to act like it was no big deal. I’m sorry.”  She held out her hand.  “Cara Sullivan.”

He smiled again and shook her hand.  “John Kreese.”

“Nice to meet you.”

“You too,” he agreed.  “Thanks for taking good care of my men.”  He took a sip of the drink in front of him.  “And you should try that yelling at the germs thing sometime. You were pretty scary.  I think you could take a few out.”

Cara laughed and put her hand over his.  “Well, if that doesn’t do it, maybe the dirty joke playing cards you passed them will.”

“Yeah, well,” he shrugged, and Cara would have sworn he blushed.  “I had to do something to raise their spirits.”

“And the fact that they’ve caused quite the stir on my ward was just a bonus?”  She lifted an eyebrow.

“Something like that,” he laughed, turning his hand to hold hers.  “So, Lieutenant Sullivan.  Where are you from?”


	13. Popcorn

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 12 of the writing challenge.  
> A trip to the movies doesn’t go as Dutch planned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Karate Kid Fandom.
> 
> I own nothing.

“What are we doing here?” Ali Mills asked, picking at her skirt. It was two weeks before the start of tenth grade and she’d agreed to go to the mall to go shopping for a few new outfits, not follow those idiotic cobra Kai boys around all day, ending with watching Rocky at the cineplex because Barbara thought she’d heard that Dutch guy saying they were going, and she had a crush on him.

“Oh, hush,” Susan said. “It’s not like we have anything better to do. And Rocky is totally hot.”

“That’s true,” Ali agreed, settling in for the show.

She practically groaned when those Cobra Kai boys took the now behind them.  Then that moron Dutch started throwing Milk Duds and one got stuck in her hair.

She stood up, pulling the candy from her hair and throwing it back at the ring leader, a tall blonde boy who picked up the Milk Dud and tossed it at Dutch.

“Chill out, Dude,” the blonde said.

“Yeah, right, Johnny,” Dutch laughed. “Just because you’re scared of girls doesn’t mean everyone is.” He looked up at her. “What are you going to do about it, Baby?”

"Baby?” she scoffed. “Yeah,” She grabbed the bucket of popcorn Susan was holding and dumped it over him, stuffing the bucket down on his head like a hat. “Don’t call me baby, Baby. Why don’t you all leave if you can’t act like decent human beings?” She spun around and dropped back in her seat, folding her arms over her chest, determined to ignore the boys.

“Come on, let’s go,” Dutch snarled, throwing the bucket on the floor as his friends jeered and laughed.

“We want to watch the movie,” Johnny protested.

“Fine, walk home,“ Dutch growled, standing up and brushing the popcorn from his hair, before stomping out.

“Guess we better go,” Bobby Brown put in.  “If we have to walk, will be late for karate and I’d rather deal with a mad Dutch than a mad Sensei.“

The others agreed reluctantly and began to gather their things.

The ringleader, Ali thought Dutch had called him Johnny, leaned forward.  He slipped a piece of paper in her hand.  "I’m sorry Dutch was being an idiot. I can behave like a decent human being,” he smiled. “Call me sometime. I’m Johnny.”

“Yeah, right,“ she smirked.

But Johnny noticed that she put the paper with his number on it in her pocket.  He smiled as he walked out wondering if she would be going to the same high school as him in the next few weeks.


	14. Ferris Wheel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 13 of the Writing Challenge  
> A happy Ali/Johnny memory

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Karate Kid Fandom
> 
> I own nothing.

He took her to Golf ‘n’ Stuff.  It was cliché, but she loved it.  He’d stammered through every discussion and spilled his drink when they stopped playing goofy golf to eat.  He’d been trying to get a date with her for weeks and now he was being a class ‘A’ jerk. He’d all but given up on the date after tripping over his own feet when they were playing air hockey in the arcade. He was about to suggest that they just call it a night and take her home when she spotted the Ferris Wheel.

“Oh!  Can we go on the Ferris Wheel?  It’s my favorite thing!”

He personally was terrified of Ferris Wheels but what else could go wrong on this date?  At this point, he was just praying he wouldn’t fall out of the seat.  Everything was fine.  At first. They went around twice before getting stopped at the top to let people off.  He gripped the bar tightly, determined not to let his fear show when she finally quit looking over the edge and looked at him.

“Oh, dear!  You’re scared of heights, aren’t you?”

“I’m not scared of anything,” he replied indignantly.  Besides, it wasn’t the height, it was the way the car rocked back and forth over nothing.

She smiled kindly.  “Well, just don’t look down.  Close your eyes.”

He looked away from her and snorted.  ‘Close your eyes.’  Yeah, sure. That was going to help.

She grabbed his chin and turned his face back to her.  “Close your eyes,” she insisted.

So, he did.  Then he felt it.  Light as a feather and soft as silk, her lips on his.  He started to relax and felt her smile against his lips, sliding her arms around his neck.  He put his arms around her waist and pulled her closer.

And that was how Johnny Lawrence got his first kiss and got over his fear of Ferris Wheels all at once.


	15. “Put On Your Shoes.”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 19 of the writing challenge.  
> Johnny proposes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cobra Kai Fandom- The Long Road Back Verse.
> 
> I own nothing.

Johnny had never been good at keeping his feelings, or his thoughts, to himself.  Maybe that’s why the first time he proposed to Kayla, they were making love.  Looking at her he couldn’t imagine a better life than he had right then, so he just blurted it out.  

“Marry me.”

Kayla just laughed and pulled him down for a kiss.

* * *

He tried again six months later.  They’d been getting ready to go out to eat at some swanky place uptown for her parents’ anniversary.  Kayla was in the bathroom, putting on her makeup in the mirror, still wrapped in just a towel from her shower.  Damn, he loved her so much.  She was better than anything he’d ever deserved.  He walked up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist.

“Marry me.”

“What?” she laughed.  “Yeah, okay.” She shook her head, dismissing his request as a joke.  He looked slightly hurt but shook it off and leaned down and kissed her neck.  

“We don’t really have to go to this dinner, do we?” he asked, pulling at her towel.  “Or could we at least be late?”

“Being late might not be so bad,” she laughed again, turning to face him and wrapping her arms around his neck, letting him lift her up on the vanity.

“When are you going to take me seriously?” he asked, kissing her.

“How about when you act like you’re serious?” She shot back.

“Okay.  What do you consider serious?” he asked, sounding serious for the first time.

“How about when I’m dressed, and you aren’t trying to get me in bed as a bare minimum?” She replied.

“Dressed, I can do that,” he said, thoughtfully.  “Not trying to get you in bed…, you might be waiting a while for that.”

“True,” she agreed.  “Okay, how about just don’t make it so obvious.”

“I can do that. So, just how late are we going to be?” He grinned.

* * *

Six weeks later, Kayla had just come home from a long shift, kicked off her shoes, changed into casual clothes, and started cooking dinner.

When Johnny came home, he came into the kitchen with her, and kissed her, then turned her around in a circle as though he was checking her out.

“Go put on your shoes,” he requested.

“Why? Are we going somewhere? I’m cooking,” she protested.

“Just go put on some shoes,” he said again.

“Okay,” she shrugged, thinking he was being weird. She went to the door and slipped on her shoes as Johnny turned the stove off.

When she came back to the kitchen, he turned her around in a circle again.

“Okay.  You fully dressed? We good?”

“Yeah,” she replied, looking at him like he’d lost his mind.  “Johnny, what is this about?”  
“This.”  He stepped back and pulled a ring box from his pocket.  Dropping to one knee, he asked, “Kayla, will you marry me?”

Kayla was shocked silent for a moment, then covered her face and laughed.  She remembered the conversation about ‘dressed and not obviously trying to get her in bed’. That was what the shoes were about.

“Yes, YES!”

He slipped the ring on her finger and stood up to hug her.  

She threw her arms around his neck and kissed him.

After a few minutes, he pulled away and asked, “So that ‘not obviously wanting to get you in bed’ thing, how long does that have to last?”

“Hmmm…,” she looked at her watch for about five seconds.  “That should be enough time.  Let’s go.”


	16. Urban Indiana Jones

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 22 of the Writing Challenge.  
> The boys do a little urban exploration and get more than they bargained for.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cobra Kai Fandom- I Prefer Corona Universe.
> 
> I own nothing.

Miguel didn’t know how he got talked into this stupid idea. This was not the sort of things kids like him should be doing on a Saturday night. Not a kid with a scholarship to the college of his dreams that he would lose if he got arrested. God!  If he got arrested his mom would kill him.  It all started with Demetri talking about some supposed haunted mansion in Encino.  
  


Robby said he’d been there. Of course, he had. What juvenile delinquent thing hadn’t he done?

That wasn’t fair. Robby was actually a pretty cool guy. So what if he’d been a little shady in his past?

This wasn’t a little shady. This was breaking and entering. Well, it wasn’t so much breaking as entering through a door that someone else had broken. Still, had to be illegal though.  
  


He didn’t even know what he was doing there. One minute Demetri was talking about it, then Robby said he’d been there and knew how to get in, and the next thing he knew the two of them, Demetri, and Hawk were on their way to the abandoned mansion.  
  


Robby and Hawk had real flashlights, but he and Demetri just had their phones.  
  


Robby led them around the back of the property to a break in the security fence.  
One by one they slipped through the hole and were on the property.  
  


“Well, what are we waiting on?“ Robby asked as Demetri, the last through the fence, got to his feet. He took off towards the building while the other three followed behind him at a slower pace with Miguel and Demetri crowded around Hawk since his flashlight was way better than their phones.

“Hey, watch out!” Robby called back to them.  “There is a wading pool around here somewhere and a regular pool behind it.  They were empty last time I was here, so don’t fall in.”

Great.  Not only were they breaking into an abandoned, possibly haunted house, there were also giant holes in the ground that would kill them if they fell in.

They made it into the house without any major injuries.  Miggy was starting to relax.  Sure, it might still be haunted, but at least there were no giant death holes in the house.

He moved up by Robby who was still leading their little expedition.  The first room was a kitchen.  Fancy for the 1920s when the house was built but nothing spectacular.

  
After that was a den or some other kind of family room with a bunch of televisions stacked up in the middle of the floor.  
  


"Those televisions are kind of creepy,” Demetri said. “Like some kind of comment on our society.”  
  


Hawk looked at him and rolled his eyes. “Dweeb.”  
  


Miguel hoped they wouldn’t start bickering. He was too amped up to listen to them right then.  
  


They made this way to the foyer, which he had to admit was pretty cool with the double staircase and what Robby said was probably a koi pond between them and some very cool graffiti on the walls.  
  


They had just started up the stairs when Hawk smacked Demetri in the chest. “Quit breathing on me, Dude,” he demanded. “Or at least use a mint. What’d you eat?”

"I wasn’t breathing on your” he defended himself. “And I’m the only one who brushed my teeth after dinner.”  
  


“Whatever,“ Hawk declared. "Just breathe away from me from now on.”  
  


“Shh…,” Robby said. “Quiet down. We’re not supposed to be here.”  
  


Well, that was even worse than Hawk and Demetri’s bickering because Miguel was sure he was hearing way more footsteps and breaths than the four of them should have produced, but he kept that thought to himself as he didn’t want to be the scaredy-cat.  The next room was a bedroom with a round bed and shiny wallpaper with a broken mirror on the ceiling.  
  


“Wow,“ Robby chuckled "Looks like you could get something Ajax couldn’t take off just by walking in there.”  
  


“Yeah,“ Hawk laughed, then tried to push Miggy into the room.  
  


"Dude, stop!” he demanded, shoving Hawk back,  
  


“Moving on,” Robby declared moving on down the hall.  “And whichever one of you just grabbed my ass, you best not do it again.“  
  


The three other boys looked at each other confused. None of them had been near Robby’s butt and wouldn’t dare grab him if they were.

They moved on down the hall, the next few rooms were not too exciting.  
  


"Dude, I said I wasn’t breathing on you,” Demetri turned on Hawk who was now behind him. “Quit blowing on my ear!”  
  


“I’m not anywhere near your ear,“ Hawk snapped, "And I wouldn’t blow anything on you anyway.”  
  


Maybe it was a little juvenile but all the boys laughed. Miguel felt just a little uneasy as he could have sworn he heard a laugh that didn’t belong to any of them.  
  


He shivered and tried to tell himself that it was just their imaginations running away with them.  After all, nothing had blown, grabbed, or breathed on him.

A few more rooms in, they were debating on going up to the attic when Robby opened the door to the last room.  
  


It was a library with an ancient chandelier hanging from the ceiling and the smell of decaying books in the air.  
  


Three feet into the room, Robby spun around on his partners-in-crime. “I said quit grabbing up on my ass. It’s not funny and I’m going to pound all of you if it happens again.”  
  


“Nobody touched your ass,“ Hawk sneered, "Get over yourself.”  
  


“Well, no one breathed on you,” Robby shot back.  
  


“Yeah,“ Demetri put in.  
  


“And no one would ever blow in your ear,” Hawk snapped.  
  


They were about to come to blows when Miguel felt it more than heard it. A tiny voice saying, “Run.”  
  


“What?“ he asked confused, this time the voice boomed in his head.  
  


"RUN!!”

Just then doors started slamming up and down the halls of both floors as long dead lights flicker on and off.

The boys took off running, tracing back through their path, out the kitchen, through the hole in the fence and didn’t stop until they were halfway back to Hawk’s house, with Demetri finally collapsing to catch his breath and the other following suit.

“What was that?” Robby asked.

“A very flirty ghost,” Miguel responded, giggling madly at both his joke and the absurdity of what had just happened to them. “They breathed on Hawk, blew in Demetri’s ear and grabbed your butt just before telling me to run.  Let’s never go there again.”

“Agreed,” the other boys said, almost in unison as they laid on the wet grass of Hawk’s neighbor’s yard.

“Hey, have you guys ever heard of those Urban Exploration channels on the internet?” Demetri asked. “We should start one of those.”

“That would be so cool,” Hawk replied, while Robby nodded his agreement.  

Miguel just shook his head and stared up at the stars. His days of being an urban Indiana Jones was over.  He didn’t care what they called him.


	17. A Bit of Wonderful.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 23 of Writing Challenge  
> Cara’s big brother visits her camp in Viet Nam.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Karate Kid Fandom- A Careless Man’s Careful Daughter. (China Beach character mentions.)
> 
> I own nothing.

Cara sat on the beach staring out at the waves. Her mind moving too fast to come to any conclusion. She was still no closer to deciding what to do. She heard the helicopter overhead and turn to look up at it. Listening for the call of ‘wounded’. When it didn’t sound, she looked back at the waves. Lost in thought, she didn’t notice someone sitting down next to her until he spoke.

“Penny for your thoughts?“

“Jesus, Michael!” She jumped, then punched her brother in the arm. “You scared the daylights out of me.”

“Sorry,“ he laughed. “To be fair, though, I did call your name from back there.” He pointed back to the path to the beach. “KC told me you were down here. What’s up? You look a million miles away.”

“That was you?” she pointed up to the sky. He was a helicopter pilot. “You didn’t bring me any customers today?”

“Nope brought you some supplies. Quit changing the subject,” he replied. Why are you sitting out here looking like you’re trying to figure out the meaning of life? Or at least how two of Colonel Kelly Sullivan’s children ended up in this hellhole. Has the Army never heard of nepotism before? We should be sitting on some Stateside base with cushy office jobs being pains in the asses of those who actually worked to get there.”

“I volunteered and you would hate being grounded,“ she replied, laying her head on his shoulder.

“Probably true,” he nodded. “Come on. Tell me what’s got you so morose?“

"Good word,” she replied.

“Yeah, Mom got me a word of the day calendar. She hopes it will make me sound smarter. You know she’s still pushing for all five of us to be officers. Did it work?”

“Until you kept speaking,” she laughed, despite how awful she felt, “Oh, Mikey, Mom’s going to kill me.”

“What have you done to incur Mom’s wrath?“ he asked.

"I’m pregnant,” she finally spilled.

Michael was silent for a long moment, then, “Damn, Sis. Are you sure?”

“I’ve got all the signs,” she replied. “Fatigue, morning sickness, all the girlie things you’ll say ‘EW’ about, irritability…,”

"Well, if you’re going by irritability, you’ve been pregnant since you were twelve,” he teased.

She shoved him sideways with a small laugh. “I’m serious.”

“Look, all jokes aside,” he put his arm around her. “Couldn’t all that stuff be caused by stress, because I hate to break it to you, Sis, but you’re living in an inferno, doing probably the most stressful job a woman can have right now on less sleep a week than most people get a night.“

"Are you saying I’m stressed out?” she rolled her eyes.

“That’s what I’m saying.“

She laughed again. "It’s more than that, Mikey. ” She paused, then decided they were both adults and she could confide in him. “It hasn’t been that time of the month for over two months now.”

"Sis!” He looked at her with alarm. “And you’re just saying something now?!" 

"I’m just accepting it myself now,” she replied.

“Have you told John?“

She shook her head.

” _Should_  you tell John?“ he asked, cautiously.

"Yes!” She cried indignantly when she realized his implication. “I just wanted to make sure there was something to tell first.”

"Just wanted to make sure I’m punching out the right guy,” he teased, “So, are you still not sure?”

“Not medically. No,” she replied.

“What are you waiting on?” He asked.

“I can’t just go ask for a pregnancy test,” she said.  “It’ll go in my medical file.  Besides…,”

“What?”

“I’m scared, Mikey,” she admitted.  “You know what will happen if I am.”

He nodded somberly.  “A one-way ticket Stateside.”

“And probably a discharge,” she said.  “I can’t…, this is all I know.  This is awful.”

“Awful?” He raised an eyebrow.  “Cara Marie, this, this is the total opposite of awful. This is wonderful!  This is…, beautiful.  Hell, I might even like  _this_ kid!”  He patted her stomach, then got to his feet.  “Give me an hour okay?  Then I’ll have you a way to find out that won’t go in your file.”

“How are you going to do that?” she scoffed.

“Please.  A magician never reveals his secrets,” he replied, heading back up the beach.

* * *

“KC?! You told KC?! That was your big plan, Master Magician?” She sputtered as he led her to the other woman’s quarters.  

“Well, I figured a woman in her profession would have a way, you know?” he shrugged.  “And she owes me a favor for something I might have smuggled out for her.  She won’t tell.  And no, it wasn’t drugs.”

KC smiled at her like the cat who ate the canary when she entered the room.  “Well, Sullivan.  I knew you were screwing that Green Beret, but I figured you’d be smart enough to use protection. I didn’t think I’d have to have the birds and bees talk with you like I do the Donut Dollies.”

Cara glared at Michael before turning back to KC.  “For your information, I was using protection. It doesn’t always work.  Something you should keep in mind.”

“Maybe so.” She sauntered over to her foot locker and pulled out a pregnancy test surprisingly like the ones they kept at the hospital for the local women needing care.

“Where did you get this?” Cara asked, taking the box.  

“Don’t ask questions you don’t want to know the answer too,” KC replied.  “Now, go get the necessary ingredient.  I’ll get it set up.”

“Wait, here?” Cara asked.  She’d hoped to do it in private.

“Unless you want to go over to the clinic, where else?” KC answered.    
“Um…, my tent.  By myself.”  
“Too late.  I’m involved now,” KC replied, examining her nails. “I can help with whatever.”

“I’m a nurse.  I know how it works,” she replied but seeing she wasn’t going to win, took the specimen cup and stomped out, returning a few minutes later.

True to her word, KC had all the chemicals in the kit ready to go.  Cara added her part.

She put her hands over her face, muttering, “Please don’t change. Please don’t change.”

“Sorry, Toots,” KC said, examining the petri dish.  “You’ve got a little Cobra on board.”

“Alright!” Michael smiled, more for Cara’s benefit than his own. “I’m going to be Uncle Mikey!”

“We already have three nieces and two nephews,” she rolled her eyes.

“Yeah, but like I said, I’m actually going to like this one,” he smirked.

“Look, Sis.  I know it’s a lot and it wasn’t what you wanted, or planned, but think of this.  You managed to create something beautiful and wonderful in this hell we live in.  That must mean something, right?  I’m mean, this kid…, this kid is a miracle.”  He pulled her into a hug.  “You’ll get through this, okay?”

She nodded.  “I hope you’re right, Mikey.”

* * *

Two weeks later, Mikey was waiting for her as she prepared to leave. Maybe it wasn’t so bad.  She was being sent Stateside, but she hadn’t been made to resign her commission, being sent to a VA rehab instead.  Maybe having high ranking officers as parents was useful after all.

John still wasn’t back in base.  It had been over a month since the Cobra Kai unit had left out on a mission.  One he couldn’t tell her about and one he had no idea when or if he’d return from.  She couldn’t even tell him in person.

“I guess this it,” she said, standing near the plane that would take her home.

“Take care, Sis,” he said, hugging her.  Then he knelt so that he was near her stomach.  “Okay, Kid.  Listen up.  This is Uncle Mikey.  And when I get home, we’re going to be great friends.  But until then I’ll make you a little deal.  You take care of your mommy and I’ll take care of your Daddy. I’ll make sure he comes home safe and sound.  You make sure she doesn’t miss him too much, okay?  Is it a deal?  It’s a deal.” He rubbed her still flat stomach again, before standing back up.  “Give Mom and Dad a hug and kiss from me, okay?”

She nodded and wiped her eyes.  “Take care of yourself too.”

“Always,” he replied.

“Mikey? I know you’ll see John again. Give him this for me?” She pulled a plain white envelope out of her bag.  

“Of course,” he agreed.  “But I may not run into him for a while.  I’m not always in camp when he is.”

“I left a copy with KC too,” she confided.  “But I would rather you be the one to make sure he gets it.”

“Will do,” he nodded, solemnly, stashing the envelope in his uniform pocket.   He hugged her again.  “Bye, Sis.  Send me lots of pictures.”

“Will do,” she repeated, hugging him.  “I love you, Michael.”

“Love you, too, Cara.”

She boarded the plane, taking her window seat, and waved until she couldn’t see the ground, much less Michael anymore.


	18. What To Say?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 24 of the writing challenge.  
> Tony reveals his past to Wendell.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fandom: Tenth Kingdom/Night Court
> 
> I own nothing.

Tony Lewis sat at an ornate desk in Wendell’s castle with a blank sheet of paper in front of him.  This was a letter he never expected to actually write.

Oh, he’d written this letter a million times in his mind over the years, some angry, some pleading, some resigned to their twisted fates.  When Christine had literally run out on their lives all those years before, he’d assumed she’d gone back to Harry.   It was the only thing that had made sense.  The one thing he could never make sense of was that Harry had let her leave Virginia behind. Maybe for a few nights, a couple of weeks at the most, if she’d told him what she’d tried to do, but not forever. It just wasn’t in the Honorable Harold T. Stone’s character to let a mother walk out on her child, no matter how much he never wanted to see that child’s father again.  

It made sense now why she’d never came back.  Not even for Virginia.

He still didn’t know what to write.  He needed to know she was gone, but how?  How could he tell him that Christine had died as someone else in a fairy tale world without sounding like he was the one who had gone crazy?

When Christine had run out of the apartment, he should have gone after her, but he couldn’t.  He had Virginia to think about.  He had to get her out of the bath and try to come up with some reasonable excuse for what even the tiny girl had known her mother was trying to do.  He was reeling from it himself.  The sight of Christine standing over Ginny, holding her in the scalding water, yelling about her needing to be clean…, twenty-something years later and it was still imprinted on his very soul.  

He had sat by her bed all night, just watching her breathe.  The next morning, he’d had to go to work.  If he was late for court, he’d be held in contempt and if he was going to go to jail for all this, it wasn’t going to be on contempt charges.  He’d had no choice but to call Christine’s mother. The ditzy woman had fluttered around telling him how he was making too much of everything.  Virginia was fine.  She was playing with her dolls.

Fine?  Yes.  Because every little girl punishes the mother doll when they play.  That was normal.  

He laid the pen, or quill, rather that he was holding down and let his head drop to the desk.  He still didn’t know what to say.  

“Troubles, Anthony?” Wendell said in his soft voice.

He looked up, then gestured to the paper, and shook his head.  “I don’t know what to say.  How do I tell my oldest friend, a man who lives in  _my_  world, that the woman who came between us is now dead because our daughter scratched her with Snow White’s poison comb?”

“Don’t ask me,” Wendell said, sitting down on the corner of the desk.  “I barely know how to tell the people who saw it happen, what happened.”

“You’re a lot of help.”

Wendell smiled and held out one of the glasses he’d been carrying.  “Here, maybe this’ll help.”

“What is it?” Tony asked, staring at the odd colored liquid.

“Only the finest troll whiskey available,” he grinned.  “It tastes like goblin piss but…well, take a sip.  You’ll understand.”

“Whoa,” Tony breathed, setting the glass down.  It was strong.  Stronger than any liquor he’d ever had.  Just one sip was giving him that warm, relaxed feeling he usually only got after several beers.  

“Right?” Wendell laughed. “I’d be stripped of my crown if any of the other Royals knew I had it.  It’s looked down upon to have anything from the Troll Kingdom.  But all the kids drink this stuff.  You can get totally smashed off one glass.  Very important when smuggling in even one bottle of booze is near impossible in boarding school.  I’m afraid I developed a taste for the vile concoction at the Riding Hood School for Exceptional Boys.”  He shook his head.  “The only thing exceptional about any of us spoiled, useless lot was that we didn’t die from drinking this stuff.”

Tony couldn’t help but laugh at the younger man.  His mood was infectious, breaking through Tony’s sadness and frustration.  “Look, Wendell,” he said, the whiskey making him talk probably too much.  “I can’t take that job.  Hear me out,” he said, stopping Wendell from objecting.  “I lied to you.”

“I’m shocked,” he feigned. “I know.  Your story of how you were an important man with lots of money building plastic castles was a little silly.  Who would want a plastic castle?”

“Well, the  _rubber_  castles were the only part that was a lie. I was a very important man.  And I did have quite a lot of money.  I mean, I was no  _exceptional boy,_  but I could provide a very nice life for Virginia and her mother.  I was a lawyer.”

“A lawyer?  But you wouldn’t defend Wolf…,”

“I don’t know your laws,” Tony interrupted.  “And he asked Virginia, not me.”  He took another sip of the drink.  “And my name isn’t Tony Lewis.  It’s Dan Fielding.  Actually, that’s not even true.  It’s Reinhold Daniel Feilding Elmore.”  God. It had been years since he’d said that name out loud.  So long that Virginia never remembered their name being anything but Lewis.  “I was ashamed of it when I started college because I was poor, and I thought it sounded like a poor person’s name.  I dropped the Reinhold and Elmore to sound more like a real lawyer.  Whatever I thought that was at the time.”  He shrugged. “Virginia’s mother was a lawyer too. Until she had Virginia.  Then, I don’t know.  She changed.  Something just snapped.”  Another sip of the whiskey and the whole story came pouring out from Christine’s first day in court all the way to the night she disappeared.  “I don’t know,” he sighed.  “Maybe I should have gone after her, maybe I shouldn’t have yelled at her. I knew she wasn’t well.  I tried to never leave her alone, but Virginia’s nanny left early.”  He shook his head.

“So, how did you get from Dan Fielding, Assistant District Attorney to Tony Lewis, Janitor?”   Wendell asked.

“Being a lawyer on the rise didn’t leave me a lot of time to care for Virginia,” he answered.  “Besides, I couldn’t take going into that courtroom every day and acting like everything was fine.  I saw her everywhere.  So, I quit. Virginia and I lived off my savings while I tried to take care of her and find a new job.  Then I found the caretaker’s job and it came with an apartment and I could be home all day with Virginia.  It seemed like the best thing.”

“And the name?”

He smiled again.  “I had a reputation of…, well, with women…, Anyway, it wasn’t a big deal when I was just taking care of Virginia.  But when she started preschool, her teacher grabbed my…ah…, package, and told me that her sister was a law clerk and that she couldn’t wait to find out if all the stories about the ‘great Dan Fielding’ were true.  I realized that my reputation was always going to follow me and eventually it was going to hurt Virginia.  So, I took her out of that school, changed my name to Anthony Lewis, it was my grandfather’s and didn’t look back.  I buried Dan Fielding so deep I hoped Virginia would never stumble across that bastard again.  I mean, Christine left me for a reason.”

Wendell set his now empty glass down and put his hand over Tony’s.  “Listen, when your wife Christine walked through that mirror and took the hand of the Evil Queen, she became her.  You know she took on the look of the Evil Queen, but she also took on her memories, her thoughts, her goals, her everything.  She became her and there was just no room left for your Christine or anything about her. She couldn’t come back because she didn’t know that there was a back, that she had ever been anyone else until Ginny broke the spell.  You can’t keep blaming yourself for that.”

“Maybe so,” he said, turning his hand to squeeze the younger man’s.  “But I still don’t know what to tell Harry.”

“Do you think there is any way possible that he will understand all this?”  Wendell asked.

Tony thought about the question for a long minute.  “I think that if anyone from that world can, it would be him.”

“Then why don’t you write this.  ‘Virginia’,” he paused.  “He does know about Virginia, right?”

Tony nodded.  “Oh, he knows.”

“Then write, ‘Virginia’s getting married’ with the time, date, and place and ‘Please attend.’  If he does, then you take him aside, sit him down, and explain everything to him.  If he doesn’t show, then you’ll know he’s moved on and you should too.”

“Yeah.  Yeah,” Tony found himself agreeing.  “That’s exactly what I should do.  Thanks, Wendell.”

“Anytime, Anthony.” Wendell stood up and patted him on the back.  “And that job, it was just an excuse to keep you around.  I’m just not good at asking for things like that.  If you don’t want it or don’t want to stay, you don’t have too. Get some rest.  Tomorrow’s a big day.”  He left Tony to write his letter.

“Dear Harry….,”


	19. I Can Take It From Here

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 25 of the writing challenge.  
> We revisit Laura’s wedding day for another surprise.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fandom: Cobra Kai- But I’ll Never Stop Trying-Verse
> 
> I own nothing

It had been a beautiful ceremony and reception.  Laura couldn’t believe she was actually married. They’d had the first dance, and she’d danced with her dad, his dad, Robby, Miguel, Uncle Bobby, Gavin, Grayson, Graham, and even Mr. LaRusso.

They had dinner and the toasts, Miguel and Mac’s “rap” had brought down the house. Robby’s speech had been sweet and cute. Demetri’s ‘Thank goodness you didn’t listen to me’ was perfect for him.  They’d cut the cake and taken the pictures. There was only one thing left to do as she danced in the middle of the dance floor, wrapped in her groom’s arms, staring up at him like he was the only person in the world.

“So,” he said, kissing the tip of her nose. “What else do we have to do before we can get out of here?”

“Just throw the bouquet,” she smiled, running her hand over his hair. “I’m glad you won the war with your mom for your mohawk. I always liked the blue the best.”

“Yeah, well,” he smiled.  “It’ll wash out in a few days,“ he confessed. “Hospital rules. But I couldn’t get married with dork hair.”

She laughed and pulled him closer. “Let’s do this flower thing so we can go upstairs and get out of these silly clothes. What do you say?”

“I think that’s the best ideal you’ve had all day,” he smirked. “Where’s Sam?”

“Hey, Sam,” she called over to the table where Sam, Robby, Mac, Miguel, Demetri, and Aisha were sitting.  "We’re ready to get out of here. Can we do the bouquet thing now?”

“Sure thing,” Sam said, jumping to her feet. “Just let me get your toss bouquet and see if the hotel staff are ready for us to move to the lobby.”

“That’s okay. We want to do it here,” Laura said.  

“But people won’t be able to see you in here like on the staircase,” Sam protested.

"We’ll get her a chair,” Hawk replied. “It’ll be fine.”

"Yeah,” Laura agreed.

“Well, okay.” Sam shrugged and went to fetch the flowers.

As soon as she was gone, Laura looked at Robby. “You ready for this, Brother?”

He just smiled that lopsided grin of his and nodded.

“Okay, Minions! You have your assignments,“ she replied. "Go before she gets back.”

Aisha and Mac began moving through the tables, informing all the single women of the plan while Miguel and Demetri moved the important guest to the front of the crowd.

Sam was a little shocked to see everyone already gathered when she got back, but hey, that made her job easier. She handed Laura the bouquet and  
watched as Hawk helped her climbed up in the chair.

“Hey, wait!” Laura exclaimed. “Sam, get over there. You’re a single girl, too.”

“Oh, no,” Sam protested. She was the wedding planner. Okay, so she was Robby’s date, too, but she was working, and it would be way inappropriate to participate in the wedding tradition. “I’m working. It wouldn’t be right.”

“I know. You’re working for me, so get over there.” She looked at the crowd and grinned.  “I’m getting good at this ‘rich doctor’s wife’ thing, aren’t I?“

Sam, seeing she wasn’t going to win this one, slipped over by Aisha. It wouldn’t hurt to just stand there, and it would make her bride happy. After two years of struggling with her business, Laura hiring her to plan hers and Hawk’s wedding had been a godsend with all the celebrity guests of Hawk’s mother’s there. She didn’t need to seem hard to work with.

"Ready now?” Laura asked no one in particular. “Okay.” She turned around.

“One, two, THREE!” She threw the bouquet as every girl, but Sam who wasn’t in the know, took a step back, leaving her to catch the bouquet or get hit in the face by it.

“Oh!” Sam exclaimed, then looked around.  “Um…,” 

“Turn around,” Laura said.

“What?” Sam asked, confused.

“Turn around,” she repeated.

Still confused, she turned around to see Robby walking towards her.  

He stopped in front of her, then bent to one knee.  She dropped the bouquet and covered her mouth with her hands.  Sure, they had been dating for almost two years now, but she had no idea he was thinking about this.  

After a minute of the two of them just staring at each other, Laura put her hands on her hips and stage whispered, “Will you marry me?”

Everyone laughed as Robby blushed beet red.

“Thanks, Lou-Lou,” he smiled.  “But I can take it from here.”  He picked up the bouquet and handed it back to Sam.  He nodded over to Laura.  “She says you need this, and I wouldn’t argue with her today.”  He pulled a small black box out of his pocket and opened it revealing an emerald cut diamond ring.  “Samantha, will you marry me?”

“Yes,” she whispered at first, then louder.  “Yes!”

He grinned and slipped the ring on her finger before standing up to hug her to a room full of cheers.  

She looked around at all the happy faces noticing that she was the only one who seemed surprised.  “You set me up,” she accused.

“Yep,” he agreed.  “Never get in my sister’s way when she has a plan.”

“I’ll remember that,” she laughed, then kissed him.


	20. Not so Moving Buddies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 26 of the Writing Challenge  
> Daniel thinks he’s found a friend in a former new kid.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fandom: Karate Kid- A Careless Man’s Careful Daughter Universe.
> 
> I own nothing.

Rebecca couldn’t believe she was late for school on the first day. She had just gotten home from visiting her Grandparents in Virginia at two in the morning. She slid into the only open seat in her first class, looking around. Of course, Bobby wasn’t in this class. She couldn’t wait to see him.  She had been in Virginia for the better part of the month and had spent a week in Tennessee with her Dad the month before.  She hadn’t seen Bobby that much over the summer.    
None of her other friends were in there either. So, she didn’t care much when the teacher moved them into alphabetical order. She found herself sitting next to a boy she’d never seen before.

“Hi, I’m Daniel,“ he said, holding out his hand.

"Becca,” she replied, shaking his hand. “What happened to your eye?”

“Ah,” he touched it gently. “Just a little welcome party. I just moved here from New Jersey.”

“Oh I used to live in New Jersey,” she smiled.

“No way! Newark?”

“No,” she shook her head, “Fort Dix. My Dad was stationed there for a while.”

“No joke? So, what’s the biggest difference in New Jersey and California?”

“No snow,” she laughed. “I miss snow. Everywhere we’ve lived, except here, had snow.”

“How many places have you lived?” he asked. “You make it sound like a lot.”

“Well, let’s see,” she ticked them off on her hand. “I was born in Virginia, then when my Dad came home from Viet Nam, we went to Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, then Fort Meade, Maryland, Fort Campbell, Kentucky, Fort Dix, and back to Virginia. Then when they were going to send my Dad to Fort Benning, Georgia, and Mom out here to help get the V. A. hospital up and running, Daddy resigned his commission so we wouldn’t get separated again.”

"Wow,” Daniel exhaled. “You lived in all those places before you were seventeen?”

“I lived in all those places before I was nine,” she grinned. "My dad is a Green Beret and a black belt in karate. He got sent to a lot of different places to train other soldiers.”

“Wow,” Daniel said again and laughed. “Karate, huh? I may need him to train me in case of any more welcome wagons.”

"He has a karate school in Reseda. Across the street from the Orient Express Restuarant,” she said. “Most of the students our age there have been taking lessons for years, but maybe you can work out something since you just moved here.”

“Seriously? My mom works at the Orient Express,” he said. “I’m supposed to meet her for dinner. Maybe I’ll stop by and check it out, will you be there?”

“No. I have to babysit.“

“You don’t take lessons too?”

She shook her head. “I mean I do take lessons, but not with a class. I can’t compete anyway, so I just learn for self-defense and fun.”

He smiled. “So, sounds like you’ve got this moving thing down, what else can you tell me about being the new kid? We can be moving buddies.”

Daniel didn’t see Becca again that day, but he’d had lunch with Ali so maybe it wasn’t so bad.

* * *

Just as she’d said, there was a karate dojo across the street from the Orient Express Restuarant.  He quickly let his mother know where he was going to be and ran over to the dojo. Stepping inside, he saw there was a class going on. He entered as quietly as possible taking in all the trophies and pictures in the foyer, the last picture showing a rather intimidating Green Beret with the frame bearing a plaque with his name and denoting him as a three-year Army karate champion. He could tell it was the same man stalking up and down the rows between his students, barking out their mantra. When he turned and looked at Daniel, he knew it must be Becca’s father as well, even though she hadn’t told him her last name. Becca had the same curly hair and blue-grey eyes, though hers didn’t seem to look so cold.

He gingerly took a seat on the bench next to another boy watching the class.  So far it looked okay.  Sure, the teacher was a little rough looking, but this was real karate. Being mean looking was probably a skill or something to psyche opponents out.  

Then the Sensei called a student up to lead the class and it was the guy from the beach. The one who had beaten him up and humiliated him.  Daniel could see the faces of his little gang on the front row in the mirror.  Perfect.  He’d let another pretty girl lead him right to them again.  That was it, he was through with talking to people in this town.  Her dad was going to help him?  Yeah, right.  He left as quietly as he came in.

* * *

“Daniel!  What happened to your forehead?” Becca gasped when he came in the next morning.

“Like you don’t know,” he snapped, sliding into his seat.

“No, I don’t know.”

“Yeah, right.”  He angrily gestured towards the Cobra Kai jacket she was wearing.  He noticed that it was the same one he’d seen the ‘don’t think of the pain’ jerk wearing. “Your boyfriend and his little gang pushed me off a cliff on my bike last night after I stupidly took your advice to go to their dumb karate class.”

“Bobby pushed you off a cliff?” Becca was dumbstruck.

“Not exactly. It was the one with a red jacket and bike.”  He crossed his arms across his chest.  

“They were the ones you got into a fight with on the beach too, huh?” She was going to kill Bobby.  She hated when he let Johnny get him into fights.

“Like you didn’t know. You probably planned it with them.”

“I didn’t know.  I spent the last month visiting family in Virginia. I got here just before the bell. I didn’t even see Bobby until after I talked to you yesterday.”

When Daniel didn’t speak, she tried again.  “Look, if they’re hassling you, I’ll tell my dad to make them stop.”  
“Forget about it,” he snapped again.  “Don’t tell your dad or anyone else anything. You’ll just make it worse.  I don’t want anything to do with any of you  _Cobra Kais_  so just turn around and forget you know me.”

“Fine.”  He noticed the hurt expression on her face as she turned around.  Maybe he’d been a little too hot headed, but he wasn’t taking any chances with any of those guys.  If talking to one’s ex-girlfriend got him pushed down a cliff, what would talking to one of their current girlfriends get him?

He saw Becca and that Bobby arguing in the hallway later that day.  He told himself he didn’t care as he pushed past them.


	21. Maybe

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 27 of the writing challenge.  
> Johnny’s thoughts the first night Laura spends with him after starting karate.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fandom: Cobra Kai- But I’ll Never Stop Trying Universe
> 
> I own nothing.

When Johnny started teaching Miguel karate, he wasn’t really sure what he’d thought would happen.  Spend a few weeks doing what he liked and blowing through Sid’s money while he looked for a better job, maybe.  Best case scenario he’d get enough students to pay his rent, keep Shannon off his back about child support, and buy a few bottles of Coors.

What he never expected was a second chance at being a father.  He considered himself lucky when Laura came to see him at the dojo.  He hadn’t seen her for months before that.  Not since her birthday back in June actually. Even then, Robby had rushed them away so quickly after dinner that he’d forgotten to even give her the birthday gift he’d gotten her.  

Probably just as well. She probably wouldn’t have liked it. Just an old band t-shirt.  ‘Vintage’ the saleslady had called it, even though the shirt was new.  When did Aerosmith become vintage?  He’d mailed it to her, but between Shannon and Robby, she probably didn’t get it. Not that he would know.  Shannon wouldn’t let Laura come over unless Robby brought her and he never did.  

Then suddenly there she was, in his dojo.  She looked nervous, twisting on her toes, looking at the floor, as though she thought he would tell her to leave.    Like he would ever.  He’d opened his arms and smiled and she had run to him.  Just like she used to when she was little.  Before he messed everything up and stopped coming around so much, then they’d returned the favor.  It was more than he could have hoped for.

Then she asked him to come to her dance thing.  So that didn’t turn out so well, but at least she’d asked him, right?

When she’d asked him to teach her karate, he’d almost blown it, in his rush to protect her from being hurt, but she’d been right.  Nothing in the dojo could hurt her as much as the world could.  Maybe it was best if she knew how to defend herself.

That had started dinners after class.  Nothing fancy.  Burgers at the fast food joint next to the strip mall while she waited for her bus. It had been a bit awkward at first. Stilted conversations with long silences in which they’d both stare at their burgers and fries as if they were the most interesting things ever.  He’d praise her for her progress and she’d talk about school.  

Pretty soon she started talking more and more.  Chattering on about school and her friends and the kids at karate class.  He didn’t know half of what she was saying, but he was happy to listen anyway.  Sometimes, if he was lucky, she’d talk about Robby.  Something they did.  Something he’d told her about his job.  One she swore was super legit and that he had to wear dress pants to and everything.  

He hadn’t thought much about it when she’d asked to spend the night with him sometimes.  He’d just told her that she was always welcome and left it at that.  Scared that if he seemed too eager, she’d pull away again.  

But tonight…, tonight she was staying.  He’d spent all day cleaning his apartment.  He’d bought new bedding for the spare room, some nice fluffy towels, and in a splurge even a pair of pajamas, and a couple of t-shirts and pants she could leave over there.  Then he’d gone to the store and bought some snacks and some breakfast for in the morning, a toothbrush, and some girlie smelling soaps and stuff for the bathroom. Sure, she would probably bring all that stuff over with her, but he wanted to have everything she might need. He didn’t want her to have to or want to leave.  He wanted everything perfect.  If she started keeping the visitation schedule again, maybe Robby would too. He felt bad for thinking that way. It wasn’t like Laura wasn’t enough. Her wanting to come over was more than he’d ever hoped for.  But to have both of his children back…to have Laura happy…and Robby…, well if Robby would spend more than five minutes there and not glare at him like he was the cause of all the evil in the world…, well, that…, that would be more… then he should dare to hope for.

“Uh-huh.  No.  Everything is fine.  No, I promise.  Okay.  Yeah, I love you too, Brother.  I’ll see you after work tomorrow.  Okay.  I’ll tell him.  Goodnight.” Laura hung up her phone and looked over at him and smiled.  “Robby says hey and thanks for letting me stay.”

He nodded and smiled. Sure, that probably wasn’t what Robby said.  At the very least, he probably hadn’t said it that nicely.  But…, it meant that he knew where she was and that he was okay with it and that had to mean something right?  

He chose to think so as Lou cuddled up with him to watch an old movie and maybe, somewhere deep inside that hope, the one that he hadn’t let see the light of day in years, started to grow again.  Maybe, just maybe, he’d get a second chance to be a real father again.  

If he just didn’t blow it.


	22. This Should Be Fun. Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 28 of the writing challenge.  
> Good cop/Bad cop has never been this fun!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fandom: Karate Kid/Cagney and Lacey.
> 
> I own nothing.

Bobby knew sneaking out of their hotel was a bad idea. He told everyone so, but as usual, when Johnny started talking, no one listened to him anymore. Johnny had a way of making everything seem like so much fun. Well, this had been a lot of fun. Johnny could call Sensei and tell him how he got them all arrested by suggesting they sneak out of their hotel to go exploring in New York City, then by getting them all lost, and then getting an attitude with the police officer who stopped them to ask why they were in that neighborhood late at night without an adult around, while both he and Dutch had numbers in their pockets. Stupid.  
Sensei had agreed to bring them here to see the U.S. Army karate championships, one because every one of them had placed at the All Valley Tournament with him and Johnny being the finalists, and two because one of their former classmates was competing and had invited them to come to cheer him on.

He had not brought them there to get arrested the first minute his back was turned because Johnny wanted to see the ‘real’ New York. Bobby flopped down on the bench in the holding cell and glared at Johnny. Sensei was going to kill them.

* * *

John Kreese had just come in from having dinner when the phone in his hotel room rang.

“Hello,” he barked.

“Johnny!” the other voice was cheerful. “How are you, Man?”

“Good, good. Missed you at dinner,“ he said, recognizing the other voice. "Aunt Agnes said you were working.”

“I am. That’s why I’m calling. Those boys you brought up here…, Their names wouldn’t happen to be John Lawrence, Robert Brown, Thomas Wentworth,

James Banks, and…, hell, I’m not even going to try to say that last one." 

"Jan-Pieter van de Vuurst,” John supplied. 

“Yeah,” Victor replied. “How did you know that?”

“Because if the other four of them are there, then Dutch is too,” he answered. “He’s not going to let Johnny beat him to a dumbass idea. Speaking of, what have they done now?”

“Originally just jaywalking.”

"And you arrested them for that?”

“No. For that Corassa and LaGuardia were just going to give them directions back to their hotel and let them know the area they were in was a no-trespass zone, but Lawrence and the one with the name copped an attitude and got themselves detained and searched. They were still going to let them go, but the boys had some marijuana on them. Not a lot, but enough to bring them down here and scare the pants off them,” he laughed.

“Idiots,” John swore.

“Do they have any parents with them who can come to pick them up?”

"Three of them do, but you know, let me come down. Their moms specialize in 'my baby boy does no wrong.’ They’ll be happy to see their moms. Me, on the other hand, they’re probably hoping I’ll never find out,” John said.

“Okay. I think I can make a case for that. Corassa and LaGuardia don’t really want to book them for two joints and smart mouths.”

“Victor,” John suddenly laughed. “Have they seen you yet?“

"No, I was…, I was out when they were brought in,” Isbecki smiled, realizing what his cousin was getting at. “But you know, I think I may need to make a few trips to the file room just past the holding cell.”

“Did you call sensei?” Bobby asked when Johnny returned to the cell.

“Are you kidding me?” Johnny glared at him. “I called my mom. Sid will pay the bail, but your mom or Dutch’s will have to come to pick us up.”

“Um…, are you absolutely sure you didn’t call Sensei?” Dutch asked, interrupting them.  He was staring at the man who had just walked into the cell block.

“Oh, shit,” Johnny sighed.

Immediately, five boys were at attention, standing next to the cell bars.

“Sensei!”  Johnny started.

“Boys,” Victor nodded and kept on walking without acknowledging their attempts to talk to him.  He grinned once he was past the cells.  This was going to be fun.


	23. This Should Be Fun Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 29 of the writing challenge.  
> Good cop/Bad cop has never been this fun!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fandom: Karate Kid/Cagney and Lacey.
> 
> I own nothing.

When John made it to the station, Victor had already come up with three other reasons to go down to the cell block. Every time, he pointedly ignored the boys’ pleas to talk to them, to tell them what was going on, when were they going to be able to pay bail and leave, they were going to worry their moms, etc.

“What is Sensei’s problem?” Johnny said, finally. “I mean, I didn’t expect him to tell us anything, but he hasn’t even acknowledged us. I mean, I wish he’d just yell at us, or make us do push-ups or something. What’s he playing at?”

“Just sit down and shut up before you make him madder,“ Bobby hissed.

"Whatever.” Johnny dropped down beside him.

“My mom is going to kill me,” Jimmy muttered. He folded his arms over his chest.

“None of our moms are going to be happy,” Tommy said.

“At least yours is in still in California,” Dutch replied. “Jimmy, Bobby, and I are going to get creamed when we get back to the hotel, right, Bobby?”

Bobby was past complaining. He just rolled his eyes.

* * *

John got to the precinct and walked up to the duty desk. “Excuse me. I’m looking for Victor Isbecki.”

A tired and bored looking desk Sergeant looked him up and down. “And I’m looking for the Easter Bunny, I am not in the mood tonight, Victor. Better get back there before Samuels thinks you skipped out on your nightshift.”

Kreese snickered at the man’s assumption. but walked towards the doors he pointed at.

Victor was sitting at his desk, telling Petrie, Lacey, and Samuels about

the situation with the surfer boys in lock up.

“No way,” Petrie shook his head. “You’ve told some tales before, but no

way am I buying this one. You’re saying that you and your cousin look so much alike his students are confusing you for him,” Petrie shook his head.

“You’re not getting me this time.”

“Oh, I don’t know,“ John said, walking up behind them. "I’m definitely better looking than him, but we’ve managed to pull this con a few times in our lives.”

Victor smiled widely and bounced to his feet as five jaws dropped.

“Johnny!” He hugged John before turning to the room. “Everyone, this is my cousin, John Kreese. Johnny, this is my partner, Marcus Petrie, Lieutenant Al Samuels, Detective Mary Beth Lacey, and over there is Corassa, and LaGuardia, the two who arrested your boys.”

"Pleasure,” Marcus said, having regained his composure enough to shake John’s hand.  

“I never would have believed it,” Mary Beth said, looking from one man to the other. “Wait until Chris gets a load of this.”

“Oh, I hadn’t even thought about that!” Victor grinned. He rubbed his hands together in anticipation.

“Are yous really cousins?” Samuels asked when it was his turn to shake John’s hand.

“If not one of our Dad’s has a hell of a lot of explaining to do,” John answered, with a grin.

Samuels nodded as though he didn’t quite believe his eyes. "Well, I got no problem releasing those boys to you. We don’t want to give them too much hassle.”

“Thank you,“ John said gratefully. "I’ll make sure they know what they did wrong.”

“I’ll leave them to you then,” Samuels agreed. He disappeared into his office.

“Can I go see them?“ Kreese asked.

“Sure. Let me show you the way,” Victor said, but Petrie stopped him.

“You’ve played them this long. What about a little longer?” he asked, raising an eyebrow at Isbecki.

“A little good cop, bad cop?” He grinned.

“Good Sensei, Bad sensei,” Petrie grinned back.

“I like it,” Victor replied.

“Me, too,” John smiled.

“Come on,” Petrie said, leading him down to lock up.

* * *

All the boys were sitting on the bench, looking as though all the world had abandoned them.

John folded his arms across his chest and walked to the center of the cell and stood in front of the bars, looking from face to face. They really did look like a very contrite group.

“On your feet,” he snapped.

Five heads came up in unison and the boys rushed to stand at attention in front of their sensei. They all started talking at once until he held up a hand to silence them.

“Speak only when spoken too,” he growled. “Lawrence, what is this all about?”

“We just wanted to go sightseeing,” Johnny replied. “But then we got lost and then some cops started hassling us…,”

"If you wanted to go out, why didn’t you tell your mothers or me?” Kreese interrupted.

Johnny blanked. No way he could tell Sensei where they’d been headed to. “Because we wanted to go somewhere you all wouldn’t have let us go.”

“Yeah?” Kreese gave him an inquisitive look. “And did you find the red-light district?”

All the boys blushed bright red and looked at their feet.

“Yeah,” John nodded. “Sit down and stay quiet until I come back.”

“Yes, Sensei,” they answered together.

John turned and walked back upstairs, stopping at Victor’s desk. “You know, other than the extra push-ups I make them do, they’re going to get off from this scot-free.  By the time they get home, it’ll just be a funny story for their Dads to tell at the country club next weekend.“

“What are you suggesting?”

“Well, they wasted all of your time.  They should give some of their time,” John said. “I make them clean the dojo back home. It’s the only thing that gets through to them. Can they clean your office?”

“Hey, Corassa. LaGuardia, you want those smart mouth kids to clean the office?“

“I would love those smartass kids to clean the office,” Corassa smirked.

“It’s their bust,“ Victor shrugged. "They’re in charge. I’ll go tell the boys the good news.” He grinned as he bounded down the stairs.

The boys looked miserable, but they were still and quiet as instructed. They sat up straighter when he came in.

“Cheer up, boys,” he smiled. "We’re gonna get you out of here soon. Just clearing up some paperwork.” He turned on his heels and went back upstairs.

“I knew Sensei wouldn’t let us down,” Johnny exclaimed.

“Did anyone else noticed that Sensei changed clothes?“ Jimmy asked.

"What?” Tommy asked.

“He was wearing a shirt and tie, then his brown jacket, and that time he was back to a shirt and tie,” Jimmy explained.

"He’s right,” Bobby realized. “Something weird is going on. When have you ever known Sensei to be that nice?”

Before they could think about it, Kreese was back with Petrie to let them out.

“See? Different clothes,” Jimmy whispered.

“Speak only when spoken to, Banks!” Kreese ordered. “Now, since you boys want to run around and act like you are adults, I have no problem letting them treat you all as adults and send your asses to jail for the night.”

The boys looked a little green at this, but John continued, “But, it seems that you’ve wasted enough of those officers’ time and they aren’t keen on spending their night writing up the paperwork, so you lucked out.”

The boys looked around as if not quite believing him before starting to get excited.

“Hold the celebration,” Kreese snapped.  “You all aren’t getting off scot-free.  First, you’re going to go upstairs and apologize to the two officers you disrespected.  Is that clear?”

“Yes, sir,” Johnny and Dutch mumbled.

“You can let them out.” He stepped back and let Petrie open the cell.  The boys filed out one by one and followed him upstairs.  He led them over to Corassa and LaGuardia and the boys all mumbled out an apology, Dutch being last and only after a reproachful glare from John. “Okay, since you all wanted to waste, what, two hours?” He looked at Corassa.

“Sounds good to me,” Corassa replied, though it had only been one, if that.

“Two hours of these Officers’ time, I think it’s fair that you give them some of your time, so for the next two hours, you are going to do whatever they say, and I am going to be right over there,” he pointed to Victor’s desk. “To make sure that you do.  Is that clear?”

The boys all wore identical looks of astonishment as they stared at Victor.

“I told you something was up,” Jimmy whispered.

“I said, ‘Is that clear?’” John repeated louder, snapping them out of their stupor.

“Yes, Sensei,” they answered.

“Gentlemen, they’re all yours,” John said to LaGuardia and Corassa before going to sit beside Victor setting off another round of whispers.

“So, what? You aren’t even going to tell them why you are sitting next to the twin they never knew you had?” Victor asked.

“When one of them gets brave enough to ask me,” he shrugged. “So probably about this time next week.”

Once the boys settled down, they did a good job and were being respectful, not only to Corassa and LaGuardia but all the officers.

“What’s with the cleaning crew?” Cagney asked when she got to work and signed in.

“Ask Victor,” Mary Beth replied.  She didn’t see what the big deal was.   Those boys were just as sweet as pie, but if it was getting the station cleaned, she wasn’t going to say anything.

“Hey, Isbecki,” Chris threw a look over at his desk, then did a double take and let out a strangled scream. “Oh, my God, there are two of you!  Why are there two of you?  Mary Beth, why is there two of him? Has he finally driven me insane?”

“I see you still have a way with women,” John smirked.

“Nah, that’s just Chris,” Victor laughed.  “Hey, Cagney, come meet my cousin John.  The cleaning crew is some of his students from California who wanted to do a little sightseeing in the District.  We’re letting them clean the office instead of giving them a ticket to Riker’s.”

“Well, in that case, make sure they get around my desk,” she replied walking over to them.  “Christine Cagney.”

“John Kreese.”  

Christine marveled as they shook hands, looking back and forth between the two men.  “Mary Beth, are you sure I’m not hallucinating?”

“Pretty sure,” Mary Beth answered.  

“Wow.”  But as she looked closer, Christine could see subtle differences in the two men.  John was slightly older and with his hair cut shorter, it didn’t have the same golden highlights Victor’s did.  “Students, huh? So, are you a teacher?”

“Sensei,” he replied.  “I brought them up to see the U.S. Karate championship.  A former student is competing.”  

“No kidding?  I’m taking my Pop to that.  He likes any kind of fighting competition.  Reminds him of being on the beat,” she smiled.  “Maybe I’ll run into you.”

“Maybe,” John agreed.

Chris took her seat across from Lacey and pulled out some case files but kept looking back to Victor’s desk.

“No,” Mary Beth said, finally.

“What?

“I see how you’re looking over there,” Mary Beth replied.  “As far as you’re concerned, that man is a hallucination.  Do you hear me?

“Yeah, I hear you,” Cagney sighed.  “But, if he’s a hallucination, then it can’t hurt to look.”  She threw a look at her friend and grinned.

After about an hour and a half, Corassa and LaGuardia had exhausted the list of chores the boys could do, so after promising to meet Victor for breakfast as originally planned, John took his exhausted quiver back to their hotel.

When they were almost to their floor, Johnny finally got brave enough to speak.

“Sensei, was that man your brother?”

“No.  He’s my cousin,” Kreese replied.  “And you better be damn glad that he is, or you would have been in a whole lot more trouble.  What you all did tonight was stupid and dangerous.  I know because I grew up here and I did the same stupid thing and there wasn’t anyone around to bail me out.  There might not always be someone around to bail you out either, so start using your brains sometimes.”

“Are…, are we good then?” He asked again.

“For the sneaking out?  I’m going to have to tell your parents what you did, but yes.  I think you’ve been punished enough for that.”

When the boys looked a little too relieved, he continued, “We’ll talk about the joints when we get back to the dojo.  Since you all want to be smokers, we’re going to have to increase your exercises to compensate.”  

“Yes, Sensei,” they replied, sheepishly.

“Now, get some rest.  We have an early day tomorrow.”


	24. The Aftermath

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 30 of the writing challenge.  
> Scott and Joey have a heart to heart after the shooting at the Embassy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fandom: The Equalizer: I Miss My Friend Universe
> 
> I own nothing.

Joey watched Scott carefully from her spot across the bar. He had just been sitting on their sofa, staring at the door. If it hadn’t been for the rattle of ice cubes in his glass when his hands shook, or the occasional heavy sigh that escaped his lips, she would have thought he was catatonic.

She could not believe that Robert and Kay had let him come home after all he’d been through the last few days, but then maybe he hadn’t given them much choice.

She knew her Dad always like to ‘get back to normal’ as fast as possible after a bad time at work.  But this wasn’t Scott’s job and the three-day rapid training he’d undergone might have prepared him physically, but it hadn’t prepared him mentally for having to take a life if anything ever could.

He’d been kidnapped, escaped, gone back to save his friend, and then had to shoot the brother of that friend to save his life.

Looking at him now, it seemed as though he’d traded his soul for Emil’s life. He looked so broken and blank she couldn’t handle it. She put down the drink she was holding, she moved across the room and stood in front of Scott. She took the drink from his hand, set it on the coffee table, then sat down, straddling his lap. She took his head in her hands and made him look up until he was looking her in the eyes.

“Scott, listen to me. You are a good person. You were forced to do a bad thing to save someone else’s life, but that doesn’t change the fact that you are a good person.“ She brushed her lips across his, then wrapped her arms around his neck.

He buried his head against her shoulder and began to cry. She held him tightly, murmuring words of comfort.

“I killed someone, Joey,” he said, finally, his tears subsided. “He was alive and now he’s not and that’s because of me.”

“He would have killed Mr. Ross and you,” she said. “You did what you had to do and I’m glad that you came home. I love you.” She kissed him again, then stood up. He was still dressed in the black clothes with grease paint on his face, what hadn’t already smeared off onto her shirt. “Come on. You need to get a shower and sleep. It can’t hurt and maybe it’ll help.”

She led him to the bathroom and started a shower, then sat by the door and babbled on, about everything and nothing. 

“Do you want something to eat?“ she asked when he was done, but he just shook his head. “Come on,” she said again. “Let’s get you to bed. You’ll feel better in the morning.” she knew that wasn’t true but maybe if she believed it, he would too.

He caught her hand as she pulled the blankets up around him.

“What is it? Are you okay?” she asked.

“I love you, too, Joey,” he said, putting a hand behind her neck, and pulling her into a kiss. “Stay with me?”

“Okay,“ she agreed, laying down with him, and pulling him into her arms, kissing him again. They had been strictly just friends since Paris. Her rules, not his. Though he’d originally agreed that a long-distance relationship of that magnitude was kind of silly for two eighteen-year-olds, he had returned from Salzburg wanting to date her. She had turned him down, afraid of losing her best friend, the person who understood her more than even she often did, if things went south. She didn’t know if she could stand a life without Scott in it. Fear had forced her to step back from a romantic relationship with him.

Fear. She realized that she hadn’t known what fear was until Mickey had told her that he had been kidnapped to cover up another kidnapping. She had thought she would never see him again, though no one had dared to say it. She could see the fear in Robert’s eyes, fear that once they no longer needed Scott as a bargaining chip, his captors would kill him.

She’d sat and drank tea with Kay for hours.  Kay, who hated her. Kay who thought she was trashy.  Kay, who didn’t believe that she and Scott were living together but not having sex.  Kay, who was always looking for her to do something wrong.  Kay, who was his mother and who looked like her heart stopped every time the phone rang.  Kay, who she began to have a new understanding of after that night.

And she’d realized that she’d been lying to herself about how and how much she loved Scott.  She wasn’t going to make that mistake again.

* * *

Joey woke up with Scott’s arms wrapped around her.  She tried to move without waking him, but he was already awake, pulling her closer.

“Please, not yet.”  His voice was soft, but she could still hear the break over the words.  He kissed down the back of her neck.

“I have to go to work,” she tried to laugh it off.

“Not until noon,” he replied.

She didn’t know he knew her schedule.  He was usually still asleep from working the night before when she left for work.

“No, not until noon,” she agreed.  “Scott, what’s going on?”

“I just don’t want you to get up yet.”

“Why?”

“Because when you get up, things will go back to the way they were, and I don’t know if I can do that again. I’ve loved you since we were seventeen and I’m tired of pretending that I don’t love you, that I don’t want you. That I’m happy seeing you every day and not being able to show you how much I love you,” he said. “I just…, don’t leave yet.”

She turned to face him. “Look at me. I love you. That isn’t going to change.  I was wrong the first time.  I was scared. You are the only person who knows me. I don’t have to keep secrets from you. I can be me and care about what I care about when I’m with you.  I didn’t want to lose you and I thought the only way not to lose you was to pretend that I didn’t love you that way. When I thought…, when I thought I was really going to lose you, none of that mattered.  I just wanted you.  I wanted to hold you and tell you how much you mean to me.  I’m not going to let fear make me make the same mistake twice.”

“You love me?” He smiled.

She rolled her eyes and shook her head.  “You know I do, and I won’t change my mind again.”  She leaned in to kiss him.  

At the time, she meant it, but neither of them knew just what a large shadow the Company was already throwing over their future.


	25. A Common Enemy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 31 of the writing challenge!  
> The group serves detention after the pie incident. (Yes, I got the idea from watching ‘The Breakfast Club”!)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fandom: Karate Kid.
> 
> I own nothing.

Daniel stomped into the school library and flopped down in the first seat.  This detention was bullshit.  He shouldn’t be here.  He didn’t start the fight.  Those stupid Cobra Kais did.  He was the one being wailed on, but did the principal care?  No.  He was just all ‘you shouldn’t have escalated it, Mr. LaRusso’.  Escalated it?  There wouldn’t have been an ‘it’ if Johnny hadn’t put a piece of blueberry pie on his chair.  Worst of all, Ali and her friends had been dragged into it.  Way to make a good impression on her parents.

Ali smiled at him as she took the seat at the table next to him and Barbara and Susan sat down at the table across the aisle from them.   Johnny and crew followed them, claiming two tables in the back.  The last student was another boy.  Daniel didn’t know him, but it was obvious that everyone else did as they all groaned or rolled their eyes, simultaneously.

After being given a few instructions from a very bored looking vice principal to ‘use their time wisely’, ‘study or sit quietly’ but above all ‘no talking’, they were left to their own devices as she retreated to her office.

The first hour passed relatively uneventful.  Ali was doodling on a piece of paper, Susan was braiding Barbara’s hair into some intricate pattern, Johnny, Dutch, and Tommy were involved in a quiet, but intense paper football game at their table and Jimmy and Bobby were busy drawing something in a notebook.  Daniel was absentmindedly tapping his pencil on the table and the boy he didn’t know was sleeping.

Or so they thought.

“Are you grounded tonight?” Ali asked Daniel softly.

“Nah,” he shook his head. “I didn’t even tell my Ma.  She’s working today so I’ll be home before she is. Didn’t see a reason to bother her.”

“Want to go to a movie then?” she asked.

“Sure,” he shrugged.

“Great,” she smiled.  “You buy the tickets and I’ll buy the snacks.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Daniel returned her smile.

“Wait a minute,” the boy’s head popped up off the table.  “Lawrence!  Your girl is two-timing you up here.  She just made a date with the skinny dweeb.”

“Shut up, Donny,” Ali demanded.  “I’m not his girl and it’s none of your business.”

“Really?” He swiveled his head around to look at Johnny.  “Your girl broke up with you for that nerd?  I thought you were supposed to be some big, tough  _karate_  guy?  What’s the matter?  You like rolling around with other guys better?”

“Shut up,” Johnny swore.

“Or what?  You gonna make me?” Donny taunted.

“Yeah,” Johnny said, getting to his feet.  “If I need to.”

“Bring it on,” Donny said, jumping to his feet.

“Chill, Johnny,” Bobby warned.  “He’s just yanking your chain.  Don’t let him.  Sensei is already pissed enough that we’re missing class today.  If we get detention again and miss the match next week, he’ll kick us off the team.”

“Yeah, you wouldn’t want to deprive Brown of his chance to roll around with other boys in his pajamas, would you?”  Donny taunted.

“Why don’t you just shut up?” Barbara snapped.  “No one is impressed.”

“Oh, I think you are,” he said, moving from his seat to approach her.  “I think you are very impressed.  I think you’ve just been waiting for someone besides these Cobra jerks to notice you.”

Barbara rolled her eyes and turned to face Susan.  She wasn’t going to rise to the bait again.

“So,” Donny said, leaning on her table.  “SO!  I know Mills was Johnny’s girl and Susan is Tommy’s, so what are you?  Do you just bounce around between the other three?  Are you the group ‘girl’?”  His voice dripping with innuendo on ‘girl’.

“That’s it!” Johnny declared as the other Cobras stood up with him.  “You want to start shit with someone, come back here and start it with us. Leave the girls alone.”

“Oh, I will,” Donny said, spinning around.  “Let’s see how tough your  _karate_  really is.”

Before he could regain his balance from the spin, Daniel stuck one sneakered foot out, tripping him. Donny went rolling, head over heels, sprawling on to the floor, busting his nose in the process.  He got to his feet yelling about how they were all going to pay for that and a liberal amount of curse words.  

His yelling brought the vice principal to the library.  

“What happened?” she demanded.

“He fell,” Ali said.  “He was saying horrible things to Barbara, then he spun around to start something with Johnny, and he tripped and fell.”

“That dweeb tripped me,” Donny argued.  

“We didn’t see that,” Susan said.

“Us either,” Bobby added. “He tripped over his own feet.”

Tommy, Dutch, and Jimmy quickly agreeing to that version of events too.

“Come on,” she sighed, taking Donny by the arm.  “Let’s get you to my office to clean up and call your parents.  You need to see a Doctor.  You can try detention again next Saturday.”

Once they were gone, everyone stared at Daniel.

“That guy needed to shut up,” he shrugged.  

One by one, the Cobras nodded at him before sitting back down in their seats.  Their war with Daniel wasn’t over by a long shot, but for the rest of the day, a truce of sorts was called for his help, dealing with a common enemy.    They weren’t friends.  They would never be friends, but maybe one day they could respect each other.


	26. Little Sister, Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 15 of the writing challenge.  
> Becca’s first week of high school isn’t as uneventful as she planned. In which we get to meet some of the first Cobra Kai students.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Karate Kid Fandom- A Careless Man’s Careful Daughter verse.
> 
> I own nothing.
> 
> Special thanks to @theempressar for helping with the names and @dream-beyond-the-fantasy for suggesting Frank’s facegrab!

Sept. 1, 1981

It was the first day of high school for Rebecca Kreese and she was both thrilled and terrified.  She’d picked out the perfect outfit, her Calvin Klein jeans and a red and blue plaid shirt and got up an hour early just to fix her hair. Even she had to admit that she looked good before going down for breakfast.

Emily and Amy were already at the table, ready for their first day of Kindergarten, and having a minor freak out now that Cara had told them that for the first time ever, they weren’t going to be together as they had been put in separate classes.  

“But I don’t want to go to school,” Emily protested.  “I want to stay here and play with Amy, Daddy!”

“Sorry, kiddo,” John said. “You have to go to school.”

“Why?”

“Because you have to learn to read,” he replied.

“Mommy reads to us,” Amy said.

“You need to meet new friends,” Cara said.

“We don’t need friends,” Emily protested.  “We have sisters.”

“You need other friends too,” Cara replied.  “Daddy and I are going to take you and we won’t leave until you’re okay, then Daddy will pick you up at lunchtime, and Becca will be here with you this afternoon.  It’s going to be fine.”

“Yeah,” John agreed, setting Emily in his lap and putting his other hand on Amy’s shoulder.  “I’ll make you two a deal.  You ready?”

They nodded.  

“Okay.  I have to go see your Uncle Terry today.  I was going to go after I dropped you off at school, but if you’ll go to school, be good girls, and give the separate rooms a try, then I’ll get Terry to meet us for lunch after I pick you up,” he offered.

“Hey, not fair,” Becca said. “I want to see Uncle Terry, too.”

“Isn’t he taking you to a rock concert this weekend?” John asked.  

“Yeah,” she shrugged. He was taking her to see Speedwagon at the Hollywood Bowl and even had backstage passes since his company was a sponsor there.  “But I still want to see him.”

“You’re not helping,” Cara replied.  

“Yes, ma’am,” she sighed. “It’ll be okay.”  She kissed the top of each girl’s head.  “Kindergarten’s easy.  Just don’t wet your pants or eat the paste.  I’ll see you this afternoon.”  She snagged a piece of toast from Emily’s plate.  “I have to run.  I’m meeting Melissa before school. Bye.”  She hugged her parents.

“Don’t be late,” John said. “I’ll need to leave as soon as you get home to get to the dojo in time.”

“I know, Daddy.  I won’t be.”  She’d always watched the twins after school, well, except on Thursdays, when Mom was off.  She’d never been late before, but West Valley High was further away from home than Reseda Jr. High had been.  She grabbed her bike out of the carport and set off to school.

* * *

Melissa was waiting for her at the bike rack.  Both girls rushed forward to hug.  Melissa had spent the summer in Germany with her father.

“Oh, my goodness, I’ve missed you so much!” Becca said, hugging her tightly.  

“Me too!  I have so much to tell you,” Melissa said.  “Germany was so much fun.  And we went to France and Switzerland, it was so cool.  Wow!  Are those Calvins?” She pointed to Becca’s jeans.  

“Yeah,” Becca grinned. “I had to babysit the twin terrors all summer and help Daddy paint the kitchen and fix the floor, but Mom bought me two pairs.”

“Lucky.  My mom was all ‘I’m not buying you some eighty-dollar jeans’ blah, blah,” Mel shrugged.  

“You could always come to babysit the terror sisters with me,” Becca offered.  “OH! I have to tell you what they did to me!  I was babysitting while Mom and Dad went to dinner and they broke the dishwasher.  They actually broke the dishwasher!  Water was spraying out everywhere and I couldn’t get my parents on the phone. The kitchen looked like a kiddie pool.”

“What did you do?” Mel laughed.

“I called Uncle Terry. He came over and took care of everything, even though he slipped in the water and cut his head on the table edge. And he ordered us Chinese take out since I burnt dinner in the middle of everything else.  They’re horrible!  Daddy just laughed at me for thinking they planned it, but they totally planned it. They’ve never wanted to help me with my chores before,” she laughed, then grabbed Mel’s wrist.  “I’m forgetting the best thing!  Uncle Terry is taking me to see Speedwagon at the Hollywood Bowl Saturday!  He even has backstage passes.  I’ll get you their autographs!”

“You better,” Mel replied, eyes wide.  

“Hey, Little Sister!”

Becca looked over her shoulder and smiled as Tom Bryant, her Dad’s top student, and some of his friends came up beside her, followed by their ever-present shadows of Johnny Lawrence, Tommy King, and Bobby Brown.  

“Hey, Tom, guys,” she said.

Tom draped an arm over her shoulders.  “Listen, if anyone hassles you, you let us know, okay?” He pointed to himself and the other guys, Pete, Paulie, Aaron, and Andy, all Cobra Kai students.

“Okay, sure,” she laughed. What were they expecting to happen at school?  “Even though I have a better wheel kick than you do.”

“That’s true,” Tom conceded, cheeks red as the other boys laughed.  “But it hardly matters when I can do this.”  He grabbed her around the waist and lifted her off the floor for a second before setting her back on her feet.  “Anyway, I’m serious.  Anyone gives you any trouble, come find me.   No one messes with a Cobra.  Same goes for your friend.”  He nodded at Melissa.  He knew Becca didn’t know the way some of the Encino boys treated the Reseda kids, especially the girls.  

“Did my dad put you up to this?” she asked, suspiciously.

“Are you kidding me? I got into three fights last year,” Tom said.  “Sensei will kill me if I get in any trouble this year.”

“Yeah,” Pete laughed, then imitated her Dad’s barking voice he used in the dojo.  “Bryant!  You get suspended even one time this year and I’ll personally kick your ass!”

“Anyway, like I said, you let us know if anyone hassles you,” Tom said.  “Lawrence, make sure they get to Orientation safely, okay?”

Becca had to stop herself from rolling her eyes at the way Johnny’s chest puffed out at being giving some responsibility from Tom.  In truth, the older guys probably just wanted to talk to their girls without a bunch of Freshmen following them around.  She didn’t mention that, though, as the older boys peeled away, leaving her and Mel with Johnny, Tommy, and Bobby to find the classroom Freshman Orientation was being held in.

* * *

The rest of the day went uneventfully until choir in the last hour.  She took a seat on the stage and soon a tall boy with honey blonde hair slid into the seat beside her.  

“Hi,” he said, holding out his hand.  “I’m Frank Parker.”

“Becca Kreese,” she shook his hand.  

“Are you new here?  I’ve never seen you around before.”

“I’m a Freshman,” she answered.

“Oh, you must be from Reseda,” he replied.

She looked at him quizzically.

“I just don’t remember you from middle school,” he shrugged.  

“Oh,” she replied.  “Yeah, I live in Reseda.”

“That’s cool.  So, are you a soprano?  You look like a soprano,” he smiled.

Was that supposed to be a compliment?  What did sopranos look like?  “I’m a pretty solid alto, but I can do some soprano, depending on the piece,” she replied.

“So,” he reached out and brushed her hair back from her shoulder.  “Becca Alto-Soprano, I’m a tenor.  Maybe we can do a number together or something.”

She gave him the side-eye as she moved her hair back over her shoulder.  She didn’t really care if it was on her shoulder or behind it, but it was his presumption to move it for her that crept under her skin.  She knew it was probably petty, but she couldn’t help it.  “Well, that will be up to the director, won’t it?”

He just smirked.  “See you around, Becca Alto-Soprano.”  He got up and went to sit with a group of boys near the back of the room.  

* * *

Becca didn’t think any more about Frank Parker, until that Friday.  She and Mel were sitting at lunch when Frank came to their table and took the seat next to Becca.

“Hello, Becca Alto-Soprano,” he smiled.  “How are you today?  Who is your friend?”

“Melissa,” Mel said, holding out her hand.

“Frank,” he replied, shaking her hand, before sitting back and putting his arm around Becca’s chair. She sat up on the edge of the chair, away from him.  “Nice to meet you.”

“You too,” she replied.

“So, Becca, there’s a party in the canyon tomorrow night, a kind of back to school thing.  You and your friend want to be my guests?” He asked.

“I have plans,” Becca replied.

“Blow them off.  What could be more important than your first high school party?”

“My Uncle is taking me to see Speedwagon,” she replied.

“That  _is_  more important,” he nodded in agreement.  “That show was sold out ten minutes after tickets were available.  How did he score some?”

Becca shrugged.  She didn’t think he was a person she should explain Uncle Terry to.  It wasn’t like anyone would believe that a ‘Reseda kid’s’ godfather was one of the richest men in America anyway.  Besides, it was hard to even think about him like that.  She knew it, sure.  But she never thought about it.  He was just Uncle Terry.  The guy who fixed twin disasters, called her princess, and teased her.  “I guess he was one of the first people in the line.”

“Well, if those tickets turn out to be fake, head out to the canyon,” he smiled.

She cut her eyes at him and said, “Oh, they’re definitely not fake, but I’ll keep it in mind.”

“Good,” he said, smirking. “What about you, Friend Melissa?”

“No, thanks.  I’m good,” she replied.  

He nodded and stood up. “Ladies.  If you change your minds, I’ll see you there.  If not, I’ll see you on Monday.”  He went to sit with some other seniors.

“Who was that?” Mel asked, raising an eyebrow.

“He’s in the choir with me.”

“He’s a jerk,” Melissa said.

“No joke.”


	27. Little Sister Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 18 of the writing challenge.  
> Frank intrudes on dinner.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Karate Kid Fandom- A Careless Man’s Careful Daughter verse.
> 
> I own nothing.

The concert was the coolest thing ever. She got to watch from the front row almost close enough to touch them. Then she got to go backstage and meet them, get autographs for her and Mel and then she even got a guitar pick used in the show.

“Uncle Terry, I’m starving,” she said when they were back in the car. “I need a hamburger.”

“You need a hamburger?” he asked with a laugh. “How about steak? It’s just a hamburger that hasn’t been ground up yet.”

“Pasta?”

“I think we can find a place with pasta and steaks,” he agreed, tapping on the window between the seats. “Beauty & Essex, James.”

"The concert was so awesome,” she gushed, looking at the guitar pick as if it were made of gold. “Everyone at school wanted to go. They were all was complaining about not being able to get tickets. You know you’re pretty cool for an old guy?” She grinned up at him.

“Old?! Ouch!“ he laughed. "Do you want that pasta or not?”

“I’m sorry,“ she feigned contriteness. "You’re not old. At all. Have I told you how much I love you? You are the best Uncle ever. Can I have the food now?” she covered her mouth to keep from laughing.

“Yeah, yeah,” he laughed, reaching out to flip her ponytail around.  "Like I would ever not feed you when you need a hamburger. Or pasta. I’m glad you liked the concert.  It was a good one.”

He opened the car door and stepped out, holding out a hand to help Becca out as the car stopped in front of the restaurant.

Her eyes widen slightly at the sight inside. It was so beautiful. She was certain that she’d never been anywhere that nice before. She pulled at the hem of her skirt and brushed her shirt. She suddenly felt underdressed, even in what she thought was her best outfit of a white silk blouse, denim skirt, and her cowboy boots. But she looked like a kid playing dress up next to all the ladies in cocktail dresses and men in sharp suits, even the children looked like they’d just stepped out of the pages of a magazine. She folded her arms across her chest. She looked at Terry. He was just dressed in jeans, a red button-down shirt, and his leather jacket, but if he felt out of place, he didn’t show it. He never looked like he felt uncomfortable anywhere. She rubbed her arms.

“Are you cold, Princess?” He took his jacket off and put it around her shoulders while they waited for the maître d.

She slid her arms in the jacket, letting him believe she was cold instead of trying to explain the real reason. “Thank you,” she pulled her hair from the collar, then slipped her hand in his, feeling better about things.

Once they were seated and had ordered, Terry excused himself to the restroom.

Becca began to feel uncomfortable again, sitting in the booth alone. She started flipping through the dessert menu to avoid looking around the room. She didn’t see anyone approaching the booth until said person slid into the seat beside her uninvited.

“Well, hello, Becca Alto-Soprano.”

She rolled her eyes. Only one person called her that. She plastered on a smile as she looked up. “Hello, Frank.”

“I thought you were going to a concert,” he said. His tone sounded as though he was accusing her of lying.  Like she had any reason to lie to him.

“I did. Now, I’m having dinner. I thought you were going to a drunken orgy in the canyon,” she shot back.

“I didn’t have my favorite date,” he smirked.

Becca wished for once that she was as cool as Melissa always was. Mel would have some quick quip about his date being inflatable ready, but she could never say anything like that. Just saying the word ‘orgy’ was as risky as she could get without blushing beet red.

“How was the concert? He asked, leaning in closer. “I saw a few clips on the news. It looked awesome.”  He put his hand on her knee.

“It was totally rad,” she smiled, genuinely, but pushed his hand off her knee. She looked around, grateful to see Terry making his way back to them.

Terry sized up the boy who had taken the seat next to Becca, critically. He didn’t know this particular young man, but he knew the type, and he wasn’t impressed.

A nouveau riche pretty boy who thought his daddy’s money could buy him anything he wanted. Even people. He was one of the same kind of boys he’d gone to school with. The ones that had gone from calling him names and trying to pound him to congratulating him and treating him like some kind of royalty over the sickest thing.

If the Army had done anything for him, it had beaten that mentality out of him. He could still turn on the attitude when he needed to, though.

“Who is your friend, Becca?” he asked taking his seat across from the young man.

“Is this your Dad?” Frank asked her.

“This is my Uncle Terry,” she replied, sliding to the middle of the booth, closer to Terry. “Uncle Terry, this is Frank. He’s in the choir with me at school.”

“Nice to meet you,” Frank said, holding out his hand.

Terry looked at his outstretched hand, then up at Frank, coldly. Frank pulled his hand back.

“Is everything okay?” Terry asked her instead.

“Yes, sir.  He was just asking me about the concert,” she replied.  

Terry nodded.  Becca seemed ill at ease, but other than moving closer to him, she hadn’t overtly shown her discomfort.  Maybe it was just because she was talking to an older boy. He stayed silent but kept a close watch as they talked about the concert.

“Well, I’ll see you at school Monday,” she said, brightly after a few minutes.

“Is that my cue to go?” Frank laughed.

“Something like that,” she blushed at having been called out.

“I get it.  One thing though,” he said, putting his hand over hers on the table.  “The party tonight got canceled before it really got started.  We’re going to try again next weekend.  You interested?”

“Um…,” she bit her lip. “I’m sure I can’t go.”

“Why? You have another concert next weekend?” He’d tried to sound light but there was an edge to his voice that Terry didn’t like.

“Young man,” he spoke up.  “My niece and I are trying to have a private dinner.  You should return to your table if you have one.”

“Just a minute,” he flashed that pretty boy smile at Terry, then looked back at Becca.  “Listen…,

“Son,” Terry interrupted, leaning on the table, staring the boy down. “Becca is clearly tired of your company. It would be in your best interest to go be annoying somewhere else now.”  

Frank swallowed hard and smiled, shakily, before collecting himself, a smooth smile replacing the nervous one.  He slid out of the booth.

“Yes, well.  See you at school on Monday, Becca Alto-Soprano.”  He winked at her before walking away.

“Oh, my goodness, that guy is a jerk,” Becca exclaimed as soon as he was gone.

“Glad you can see that,” Terry said, incredibly relieved that he wasn’t going to have to have some big, deep talk with her about it now, but did make a note to warn John and Cara about the boy.  He wasn’t so sure it was as over as Becca thought it was.

“Oh, good, it’s our food,” she said, as the waiter stopped at their table.  “I’m so hungry.”

After a few bites of her pasta, enough, he assumed that she wasn’t going to faint from hunger if she stopped to talk, she put her fork down and looked up.  “We should get James some food.”

“Why?” Terry laughed.  Not that he was against feeding his staff, he just knew that James had gone to dinner while they were at the concert.  Becca, obviously, didn’t realize this though.

“He had to sit in the car while we were at the concert. Now, he must sit and wait for us to eat and it smells amazing out there,” she replied.

He laughed again.  “You know I pay him a lot of money to ‘sit out there and wait’ for me, don’t you? I promise he doesn’t mind.”

“He still gets hungry, even if he’s being paid, I’m sure,” she shrugged.

“Well, just so you don’t think I’m some cruel workhouse boss, James went to dinner with his wife while we were at the concert,” Terry replied.  “But you are right about the amazing smell of this place, so if you would like to take him some food, I don’t have any objection. What do you think he would like?”

“Everyone likes dessert,” she grinned, grabbing the dessert menu again.

“What about your folks?” he asked.  “Do you think they’d like dessert too?”

“Mom would love this chocolate caramel thing,” she said, pointing a dish. “And Daddy likes chocolate cake.”

“You got it, Princess,” he smiled and called the waiter over.  After ordering the to-go desserts for James, John, and Cara, Terry added a final thing to the order, “And a Wonder Wheel.”

Becca’s face lit up at the extravagant treat.  “Really?”

“I like dessert, too. Don’t you?” He grinned.

“Thank you!” She squealed.  

“Okay, okay, eat your pasta before you faint from hunger,” he said, pointing at her fork.

“Yes, sir.” She flipped her ponytail back over her shoulder and ate her dinner.


	28. Little Sister Part 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 21 of the writing challenge.  
> Frank apologizes for intruding on dinner.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Karate Kid Fandom- A Careless Man’s Careful Daughter verse.
> 
> I own nothing.

That Monday, Frank was waiting for Becca at her locker. She sighed. She did not want to deal with this now. She just wanted to find Mel and tell her about the concert.

“Hi, Frank,” she said, fighting the urge to roll her eyes. She wondered if she could get away with telling him to go be annoying elsewhere like Uncle Terry had done. That had made her giggle probably a little too much.

“Hello Becca,“ he smiled, then tried looking remorseful. “I won’t take up a lot of your time. I just wanted to say that I’m sorry about Saturday night.”

“That’s okay,” she replied. “It’s not necessary.”

“It is,” he insisted, reaching out to hold her hand.  "You were having a family dinner with your Uncle and I intruded on that. Then I didn’t pick up on the cue that you wanted me to leave. I apologize for that.“

"Really, that’s okay,” she said, pulling her hand away with the pretense of tucking her hair behind her ear. She turned away to open her locker and gather her books while he continued to talk about something to do with the choir. Becca wasn’t listening. She was looking for a way out.

Across the hall, down a few doors, Paulie elbowed Tom, “Look at Little Sister.”

Tom turned around to see Becca talking to Frank and looking more and more uncomfortable.  He nudged Pete who turned to see her.  

“Oh no, not that asshole,” Pete groaned.

“She doesn’t look too happy to me,” Tom said. “And we know he’s a creep. Think we should intervene?”

“I think Sensei would approve of you beating that joker’s ass,” Pete replied.

“You know,” Andy spoke up. “We could just talk to him.  Explain that she’s one of us and he needs to back off.”

"Then we beat his ass,” Tom nodded his agreement.

“If he doesn’t back off,” Andy agreed.

“Oh, come on,” Aaron said, slamming his locker door shut with a bang. “You know that piece of crap isn’t going to back off until we make him.”

“Or she does,” Pete said. “She’s tough when she needs to be.”

“Yeah, but we don’t need to let it get to the needs to be point,” Tom said. He motioned for them to follow him. “Come on.”

“Hey, Little Sister,” he said coming to her side. “How was the concert?” He positioned himself between her and Frank while the other boys circled around her.

“It was so awesome! My Uncle took me backstage and I got to meet the band and everything,” she smiled, genuinely.

"That’s cool,” he replied. At this point, he had managed to step completely between her and Frank. “Sit with us at lunch and tell us all about it, okay? You and your friend that you usually sit with.”

“Okay,” she agreed, grabbing the last of her things and shutting her locker.

Tom motioned to Paulie who put his arm around her shoulders and turned her away from the group.  “Whose class do you have first? I’ll walk with you.“

Becca knew she’d just been maneuvered out of the situation, something she’d normally be upset about, but she didn’t complain.  Though she was more than a little curious about what Tom and the others were saying to Frank.

* * *

Once Paulie had Becca out of earshot, Tom turned to Frank. "Look, Man, I don’t know what you think you’re doing, but leave that girl alone.”

“Yeah?” Frank challenged. “What are you all? Her bodyguards?”

“Something like that,” he snapped.

“Well, it doesn’t look like she needs any bodyguards,” Frank replied.

“I don’t care what it looks like. I’m telling you to back off her,” Tom said.

“What’s it to you?” he shot back. “She’s just a little Reseda whore. Good looking trash, but still trash. Just like the one you banged last year.” Then he looked at Pete, “Or you the year before.  What’s the real problem here? That I saw her first? Don’t worry. You can all have a turn when I’m done.  Now if you’ll excuse me, I must get to class,” he said, pushing his way through them and walking down the hall flipping them off.

“We’re gonna kill him if he steps out of line even once,” Tom swore.

* * *

In choir, Frank took the seat beside Becca again.  “So, how do you know the Cobra jerks?”

She looked at him and rolled her eyes, folded her arms across her chest, and stared straight ahead.  _Cobra jerks?_   She wasn’t even going to answer that.

“Come on,” he wheedled. “How do you know those guys?  Is one of them your boyfriend?”

“If you must know, my Dad is their Sensei,” she snapped.  

“I’m sorry. I didn’t know that,” Frank realized he needed to back off the insults.  “Sensei?  That means karate teacher, right?”

“It’s more to it than that, but yes, he’s their teacher,” she replied.

“Karate.  That’s cool,” he said.  “When do they have classes?  Maybe I’d like it.”

“They’ve been taking lessons for four years.  You have to be invited to join their class,” she said.  “Pretty sure that  _you_  haven’t been.”

“Look,” Frank sighed. “I think we got off on the wrong foot. I guess I was trying the ‘be a jerk’ method of getting a pretty girl to talk to you.  It was dumb and I apologize.  Let’s start over.” He held out his hand.  “I’m Frank Parker.”

She looked at his hand for a long moment, then rolled her eyes and shook his hand again.  “Becca Kreese.”

“Nice to meet you, Becca,” he replied.  “I have to get to my seat now.  Talk to you later?”

“As long as you don’t go back to being a jerk,” she replied.

“Got it,” he smiled, before going to his section.  “See you later.”


End file.
